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Nom
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Chevalier Charles
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Date de naissance
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18 April 1804
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Date de mort
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21 11 1859
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Lieu de naissance
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Paris
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Couverture temporelle
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1825-1859
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Biographie
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The son of Jacques Louis Vincent Chevalier, Charles Che-valier was educated, from 1813 onwards in a series of small schools and at the Free Drawing School where he was a companion of Gavarni. From 1818 onwards he began to work with his father but, wishing to learn the making of brass mounts, he was apprenticed (1 January 1819-10 February 1821) with Godeler, turner and instrument-adjuster. Of a weak constitution, he suffered from frequent head-aches, he was nonetheless allowed few distractions from his work. The period of the 1820s was a fecund one for Charles and his father during which they developed the camera obscura with a meniscus prism, tinted glasses for spectacles, achromatic lenses for microscopes (September 1824) and were involved with Daguerre and Niepce in the earlystages of photography. In 1827, in combination with Amici, they made his horizontal microscope and Amici introduced Charles to Nobili for whom he made apparatus. All these subjects would remain permanent centres of interest for Charles Chevalier throughout his career.
The 17 February 1829, Chevalier married a Marie Zoé de la Fayette; his son Arthur was born on 15 March 1830. In 1832 he left his father’s workshop after disagreements that the biography of him by his son, Arthur, leave obscure. In the same year as he established his own business he made the first simple microscopes with jewel lenses to be seen in France and shortly afterwards a doublet inspired by those of Wollaston. In 18 he revealed his ‘universal’ microscope which enjoyed considerable success and a diamond lens microscope, while his wife gave birth to a daughter, Marie Joséphine Gabrielle. The following year he introduced an improved form of solar microscope and in 1834-35 worked on the oxy-hydrogen gas microscope.
In close contact with members of the Académie des Sciences and other savants, Chevalier researched, experimented and innovated constantly in his field, his enthusiasm taking him often beyond the limits of what was commercially necessary. On the death of his father in 1841 he merged their two businesses, that on the Quai de l’Horloge being closed, absorbed into that of the Palais Royal. For his double photographic objective he received a platinum medal from the Société d’Encouragement in 1842, while his air-pump with continuous motion received a gold medal at the 1844 industrial exhibition. A photographic research laboratory was established at 2, rue de Valois in 1846. In 1849 a mural barometer made for James Odier received a favourable report as did an azimuth compass also designed by Odier (1), and from his pen flowed a stream of publications interrupted only by his early death (2).
Report on his mural barometer by Benoît Société d'Encouragement, 1849.
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Notes biographiques
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1 Report by Benoît in BSEIN , xlviii 1849, 564 & 604-5.
2 This account is mainly based on that written by his son, Arthur Chevalier which also includes an interesting selection of testimonials and correspondence with contemporary scientists, his friends, customers and patrons.
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Bibliographie
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I Original works
Microscope achromatique selon Euler, construit et perfectioné de 1825 à 1826 par Vincent Chevalier ainé et fils, Paris, 1826
Notice sur l’usage des chambres obscures et des chambres claires… Documens utiles à toutes personnes qui s’occupent du dessin d’après nature, recueillis et publiés par…, Paris, 1829
Conseils aux artistes et aux amateurs sur l’application de la chambre claire (camera lucida) à l’art du dessin…, Paris 1838
Notice sur quelques instrumens construits par…, Paris n.d [c. 1840]
Des microscopes et de leur usage, description d’appareils et de procédés nouveaux, suivie d’expériences microscopiques puisées dans… les notes de M. le Baillif, et d’un mémoire sur les diatomées, … par M. de Brébisson. Manuel complet du micrographe…, Paris, 1834, 1839.
Manuel des myopes et des presbytes, contenant des recherches historiques sur l’origine des lunettes ou bésicles, les moyens de conserver et d’améliorer la vue, et un chapitre spécialement consacré aux lorgnettes de spectacle…, Paris, 1841 Nouvelles instrvuctions sur l'usage du daguerréotype. Description d'un nouveau photographe, et d'un appareil très simple destiné à la reproduction des épreuves au moyen de la galvanoplastie … suivi d'un mémoire sur l'application du brome [par Léon Foucault], 1841
Mélanges photographique, complément des nouvelles instructions sur l’usage du Daguerréotype…, Paris, 1844
Note sur la nouvelle machine pneumatique à mouvement continu inventée en 1844 par…, Paris, nd [1844]
Instruments exposés en 1844 par… [1844].
Nouveaux reseignemens sur l’usage du daguerréotype…, Paris, 1846
Recueil de mémoires et de procédés nouveaux concernant la photographie sur plaques métalliques et sur papier…, Paris, 1847
Liste des instruments inventés ou perfectionnés par….; Notice sur le mode d’emploi de l’endoscope du Dr Désormeaux ; Méridienne à aiguilles du chev. E. Baldi; micromètre astronomique à prismes bi-réfringents et à grossissements variables…, Paris, 1849
Nouveau manuel complet du physicien-préparateur, ou description d’un cabinet de physique. (Manuels Roret, in collaboration with Jau), 2 vols, Paris, 1853
Catalogue très complet des appareils de daguerréotypie et de photographie sur papier, verre et metal ... n.d. [1851 - 1854?].
Perfectionnement des lorgnettes jumelles pour le theâtre, notions pratique sur leur usage, Paris, 1853
Conservation de la vue. Conseils généraux sur l’emploi des lunettes ou conserves…, Paris, 1854
Guide du photographe…, Paris, 1854
Photographies sur papier, sec, glaces albumineés, collodion plaques métalliques. Divers procédés… Description d’une nouvelle chambre obscure pour opérer en pleine lumière. Avantages de l’objectif à verres coombinés inventé par…, Paris, 1857 (includes essays by various hands).
Méthodes photographiques perfectionnées. Papier, sec, albumine, collodion sec, collodion humide… Optique photographique et stéréoscope…, Paris, 1859 (includes essays by various hands).
‘Description et usages de l’objectif à verres combinés’ in Arthur Chevalier, La méthode des portraits grandeur nature…, Paris, 1862
II Translations
Adolphe Hannover, De la construction et de l’emploi du microscope…, Paris, 1855
III Catalogues
Catalogue des instrumens construits par…, l’ingénieur-opticien (fils et seul successeur de … Vincent Chevalier) (ci-devant Quai de l’Horloge) Palais Royal, galerie de Valois, 163, à Paris, 1842.
IV Editions
Andrew Pritchard, 300 animalcules infusoires dessinés à l’aide du microscope…, Paris, 1838
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Adresse ; enseigne ; période ; source
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163, Galerie Valois, Palais Royal, Paris (1832-1842)
158 Galerie Valois, Palais Royal, Paris (1842- )
Workshops: 1, rue Neuve des Bons Enfants, followed by
1bis & 3, Cours des Fonatines (near Palais Royal)
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Exposition année ; ville ; type ; récompense
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1834 Paris Industrie Nationale Gold medal
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1839 Paris Industrie Nationale Gold medal (rappel)
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1844 Paris Industrie Nationale Gold medal (rappel)
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1849 Paris Industrie Nationale Gold medal (rappel)
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Relation
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Nachet commen
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Chevalier Vincent Jacques-Louis
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Chevalier Louis-Vincent
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Identifiant
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252
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ark:/18469/1q09h