Alfred Potier (11 May 1840, in Paris – 8 May 1905, in Paris) was a French polymath who contributed to many theoretical and practical fields of science when this was rapidly expanding. His interests covered mainly mathematical physics , the nature of light and the ether, geology, electricity and magnetism and their practical applications in industry. His name appears in a little explored footnote inserted by Michelson and Morley in their famous paper " On the Relative Motion of the Earth and the Luminiferous Ether ".
31-824: Potier is a surname, meaning potter. Notable people with the surname include: Alfred Potier (1840–1905), French polymath Benoît Potier (born 1957), French businessman Charles Potier (1806–1870), French actor and playwright Dominique Potier (born 1954), French politician Edgard Potier (1903–1944), Belgian military officer Jérôme Potier (born 1962), French former tennis player Joseph Potier (1768—1830), French privateer Pierre Potier (1934–2006), French pharmacist Pierre-Philippe Potier (1708–1781), Belgian Jesuit priest and lexicographer Suki Potier (1947–1981), English model See also [ edit ] Pottier Potter (name) House of Potier [REDACTED] Surname list This page lists people with
62-408: A dark cabinet for these days. He nevertheless proceeded to develop the plates on 1 March and then made his astonishing discovery: the object shadows were just as distinct when left in the dark as when exposed to sunlight. Both William Crookes and Becquerel's 18 year old son Jean witnessed the discovery. By May 1896, after other experiments involving non-phosphorescent uranium salts, he arrived at
93-703: A new kind of invisible ray that was capable of penetrating through black paper". Becquerel learned of Röntgen's discovery during a meeting of the French Academy of Sciences on 20 January where his colleague Henri Poincaré read out Röntgen's preprint paper. Becquerel "began looking for a connection between the phosphorescence he had already been investigating and the newly discovered x-rays" of Röntgen, and thought that phosphorescent materials might emit penetrating X-ray-like radiation when illuminated by bright sunlight; he had various phosphorescent materials including some uranium salts for his experiments. Throughout
124-464: A substance called the Luminiferous aether , contrary to Newton’s ideas that light itself was made of substantive corpuscles. Exploring the nature of this aether, Albert Michelson published in 1881 his laboratory experiments where he had light travel in the direction of the earth’s motion and perpendicular to it. Thus measured on the moving earth, he found no difference in the speed of light traveling with
155-476: Is different from Wikidata All set index articles Alfred Potier Born in 1840, Potier entered the École Polytechnique at age 17, where in 1867 he became a physics teacher, and then in 1881 full Professor of Physics, succeeding Jamin and preceding Nobel Laureate Henri Becquerel . At the same time, he was member of the State Mining Engineers Corps, occupying the chair of Physics in
186-636: The Helmholtz Medal in 1901. In 1902, he was elected as a member of the American Philosophical Society . In 1903, Henri shared a Nobel Prize in Physics with Pierre Curie and Marie Curie for the discovery of spontaneous radioactivity. In 1905, he was awarded the Barnard Medal by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. In 1906, Henri was elected Vice Chairman of the academy, and in 1908,
217-697: The Lycée Louis-le-Grand school, a prep school in Paris. He studied engineering at the École Polytechnique and the École des Ponts et Chaussées . In Becquerel's early career, he became the third in his family to occupy the physics chair at the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle in 1892. Later on in 1894, Becquerel became chief engineer in the Department of Bridges and Highways before he started with his early experiments. Becquerel's earliest works centered on
248-1081: The surname Potier . If an internal link intending to refer to a specific person led you to this page, you may wish to change that link by adding the person's given name (s) to the link. v t e Surnames associated with the occupation of Pottery Germanic English: Potter German: Döpfner , Euler , Hafner , Haffner , Hefner , Töpfer , Teper Romance French: Potier Spanish: Alfarero Romanian: Olar Slavic East Slavic: Gonchar , Goncharov , Honchar , Honcharenko , Honcharuk South Slavic: Lončar , Lončarević West Slavic: Hrnčíř , Garncarz Other Hungarian: Fazekas Turkish: Çömlekçi Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Potier&oldid=1242996358 " Categories : Surnames Surnames of French origin French-language surnames Hidden categories: Articles with short description Short description
279-403: The 26th and Thursday the 27th of February, and since the sun was out only intermittently on these days, I kept the apparatuses prepared and returned the cases to the darkness of a bureau drawer, leaving in place the crusts of the uranium salt. Since the sun did not come out in the following days, I developed the photographic plates on the 1st of March, expecting to find the images very weak. Instead
310-698: The age of 55, in Le Croisic , France. He died of a heart attack, but it was reported that "he had developed serious burns on his skin, likely from the handling of radioactive materials." In 1889, Becquerel became a member of the Académie des Sciences . In 1900, Becquerel won the Rumford Medal for his discovery of the radioactivity of uranium and he awarded the title of an Officer of the Legion of Honour . The Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities awarded him
341-517: The correct explanation, namely that the penetrating radiation came from the uranium itself, without any need for excitation by an external energy source. There followed a period of intense research into radioactivity, including the determination that the element thorium is also radioactive and the discovery of additional radioactive elements polonium and radium by Marie Skłodowska-Curie and her husband Pierre Curie . The intensive research of radioactivity led to Becquerel publishing seven papers on
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#1732884928962372-411: The dark. Niepce further noted that on the one hand, the effect was diminished if an obstruction were placed between a photographic plate and the object that had been exposed to the sun, but " … d'un autre côté, l'augmentation d'effet quand la surface insolée est couverte de substances facilement altérables à la lumière, comme le nitrate d'urane … " ( ... on the other hand, the increase in the effect when
403-406: The earth or perpendicular to it. It would have fully conformed to rules prevailing in a Galilean invariance system of coordinates, also called Newtonian inertial system, which apply to moving material particles. In the 1887 paper, written with Edward Morley, Michelson amended the route of the perpendicular light from ab1 to ab: “It may be mentioned here that the error was pointed out to the author of
434-442: The first weeks of February, Becquerel layered photographic plates with coins or other objects then wrapped this in thick black paper, placed phosphorescent materials on top, placed these in bright sun light for several hours. The developed plate showed shadows of the objects. Already on 24 February he reported his first results. However, the 26 and 27 February were dark and overcast during the day, so Becquerel left his layered plates in
465-399: The former paper by M.A. Potier, of Paris, in the winter of 1881.” When the instrument on the moving earth is observed from a stationary point outside earth, the mirror at b1 already moved to b while light was traveling there from a. “This meant that Michelson had overestimated by a factor of two the fringe shifts originally expected.” The mirror at c also moved forward at the same time, but this
496-423: The image of these objects appear on the negative ... One must conclude from these experiments that the phosphorescent substance in question emits rays which pass through the opaque paper and reduce silver salts. But further experiments led him to doubt and then abandon this hypothesis. On 2 March 1896 he reported: I will insist particularly upon the following fact, which seems to me quite important and beyond
527-412: The nucleus. In 1901 Becquerel made the discovery that radioactivity could be used for medicine. Henri made this discovery when he left a piece of radium in his vest pocket and noticed that he had been burnt by it. This discovery led to the development of radiotherapy , which is now used to treat cancer. In 1908 Becquerel was elected president of Académie des Sciences , but he died on 25 August 1908, at
558-457: The phenomena which one could expect to observe: The same crystalline crusts [of potassium uranyl sulfate], arranged the same way with respect to the photographic plates, in the same conditions and through the same screens, but sheltered from the excitation of incident rays and kept in darkness, still produce the same photographic images. Here is how I was led to make this observation: among the preceding experiments, some had been prepared on Wednesday
589-448: The prepared mind. Becquerel had long been interested in phosphorescence , the emission of light of one color following the object's exposure to light of another color. In early 1896, there was a wave of excitement following Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen 's discovery of X-rays on 5 January. During the experiment, Röntgen "found that the Crookes tubes he had been using to study cathode rays emitted
620-403: The present experiments, without being contrary to this hypothesis, do not warrant this conclusion. I hope that the experiments which I am pursuing at the moment will be able to bring some clarification to this new class of phenomena. Later in his life in 1900, Becquerel measured the properties of beta particles , and he realized that they had the same measurements as high speed electrons leaving
651-419: The sheet of paper, on the outside, a slab of the phosphorescent substance, and one exposes the whole to the sun for several hours. When one then develops the photographic plate, one recognizes that the silhouette of the phosphorescent substance appears in black on the negative. If one places between the phosphorescent substance and the paper a piece of money or a metal screen pierced with a cut-out design, one sees
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#1732884928962682-415: The silhouettes appeared with great intensity ... One hypothesis which presents itself to the mind naturally enough would be to suppose that these rays, whose effects have a great similarity to the effects produced by the rays studied by M. Lenard and M. Röntgen, are invisible rays emitted by phosphorescence and persisting infinitely longer than the duration of the luminous rays emitted by these bodies. However,
713-592: The subject in 1896. Becquerel's other experiments allowed him to research more into radioactivity and figure out different aspects of the magnetic field when radiation is introduced into the magnetic field. "When different radioactive substances were put in the magnetic field, they deflected in different directions or not at all, showing that there were three classes of radioactivity: negative, positive, and electrically neutral." As often happens in science, radioactivity came close to being discovered nearly four decades earlier in 1857, when Abel Niépce de Saint-Victor , who
744-458: The subject of his doctoral thesis: the plane polarization of light, with the phenomenon of phosphorescence and absorption of light by crystals. Early in his career, Becquerel also studied the Earth's magnetic fields . In 1895, he was appointed as a professor at the École Polytechnique. Becquerel's discovery of spontaneous radioactivity is a famous example of serendipity , of how chance favors
775-414: The surface exposed to the sun is covered with substances that are easily altered by light, such as uranium nitrate ... ). Describing them to the French Academy of Sciences on 27 February 1896, he said: One wraps a Lumière photographic plate with a bromide emulsion in two sheets of very thick black paper, such that the plate does not become clouded upon being exposed to the sun for a day. One places on
806-597: The year of his death, Becquerel was elected Permanent Secretary of the Académie des Sciences . During his lifetime, Becquerel was honored with membership into the Accademia dei Lincei and the Royal Academy of Berlin . Becquerel was elected a Foreign Member of the Royal Society (ForMemRS) in 1908 . Becquerel has been honored with being the namesake of many different scientific discoveries. The SI unit for radioactivity,
837-832: The École des Mines where he taught Henri Poincaré . Geological works included revisions of the geological map of France and submarine topographies in Pas-de-Calais in order to examine the feasibility of a tunnel to England. These, and his valor during the German siege of Paris in 1870, earned him the Légion d'honneur . His other publications concerned Fresnel’s theories of light and the ether, diffraction of polarized light, elliptical reflection, magnetic rotational forces, or interference fringes. He contributed extensive notes to JC Maxwell’s treatise on electromagnetism, facilitating its reading in France. Potier
868-532: Was a French physicist who received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1903 for the discovery of radioactivity . The SI unit of radioactivity, the becquerel (Bq), is named after him. Becquerel was born in Paris, France, into a wealthy family which produced four generations of notable physicists, including Becquerel's grandfather ( Antoine César Becquerel ), father ( Alexandre-Edmond Becquerel ), and son ( Jean Becquerel ). Henri started off his education by attending
899-583: Was a member of many committees at the famous 1881 Universal Exposition in Paris , including the one that set the standards for units in electricity. The French Physics Society appointed Potier as president in 1884; the International Electricians Society did the same in 1895. In 1891 he was accepted into the French Academy of Science. Following Thomas Young’s ideas, light was regarded in the 19th century to move as vibrations (undulations) in
930-631: Was investigating photography under Michel Eugène Chevreul , observed that uranium salts emitted radiation that could darken photographic emulsions. By 1861, Niepce de Saint-Victor realized that uranium salts produce "a radiation that is invisible to our eyes". Niepce de Saint-Victor knew Edmond Becquerel, Henri Becquerel's father. In 1868, Edmond Becquerel published a book, La lumière: ses causes et ses effets (Light: Its causes and its effects). On page 50 of volume 2, Edmond noted that Niepce de Saint-Victor had observed that some objects that had been exposed to sunlight could expose photographic plates even in
961-458: Was not taken into account. It thus seemed that light traveled different distances at the same time, which led George FitzGerald and Hendrik Lorentz (Lorentz ether theory) to postulate that distances shortened and time dilated in direction of motion (FitzGerald-Lorentz contraction). Henri Becquerel Antoine Henri Becquerel ( / ˌ b ɛ k ə ˈ r ɛ l / ; French: [ɑ̃twan ɑ̃ʁi bɛkʁɛl] ; 15 December 1852 – 25 August 1908)