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Nom
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Alvergniat Auguste Adrien
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Date de naissance
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1834-10-21
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Date de mort
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1898-10-04
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Lieu de naissance
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Droué (Loire & Cher)
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Lieu de mort
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Paris
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Couverture temporelle
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1858-1890
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Société
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Alvergniat frères
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Biographie
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Alverniat had little formal education but took up glass-blowing at an early age. In 1858 he established a manufactury for the making of glass laboratory instruments, involving his brother in its running once it was well-established. The first instrument-maker in France to produce Geissler tubes which had previously been imported from Germany, Alvergniat was particularly interested in the production of vacuum apparatus, Crooke’s tubes and radiometers. He made numerous modifications and inventions in these fields many of which were communicated to the Académie des Sciences and to other scientific societies. He obtained distinctions at all the universal exhibitions at which he showed and was made a member of the Legion d’Honneur in 1889. Alvergniat’s business was supervised from 1879 onwards by Victor Chabaud (qv.) who succeeded to it in 1890. A workshop for precision mechanics was added to the establishment in 18801. The company showed apparatus for use in electro-chemical operations together with instruments for the study of electricity and meteorology at the 1881 International Electricity Exhibition2. According to Rudolph Koenig (qv.) in the 1880s he was highly disorganised and Koenig acting as a purchasing agent for North American institutions had to go through his books to prevent his clients being cheated. Finally he gave up on ‘this totally detestable atelier’3.
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Notes biographiques
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1 La Nature 26 February 1898, 270; L'Année sc. 1899? 380.
2 Cat 1881, 38 no 518, 40 no 561.
3 Pantalony 24.
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Bibliographie
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The scientific papers of the firm were published under the name of 'Alvergniat frères'
'Sur un appareil destiné à démontrer que l'étincelle électrique ne passe pas dans le vise absolu', CR Ac des Sc, lxv 1867, 963-4; Englmish translation in Ann. Phys. Chem. cxxxiii 1868, 191-2; Phil. Mag. xxxv 1868, 404.
'Sur les tubes de Geissler lumineux par frottement', CR Ac des Sc, lxviii 1869, 722-23.
'Sur les tubes lumineux à électrodes extérieures', CR Ac des Sc, lxxiii 1871, 561. English translation in Phil Mag.xlii 1871, 319-20.
'Sur un phénomène nouveau de phorsphorescence produite par l'électricité de frottement', CR Ac des Sc, lxxiii 1871, 1215. English translation Phil Mag. XLIII 1872, 80.
'Sur les radiomètres àlamelles formées de différentes matières', CR Ac des Sc, lxxxiii 1876, 273-4;
'Des radiomètres de Crookes à lamelles formées d'un métal et de mica non noirci', CR Ac des Sc, lxxxiii 1876, 323.
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Adresse ; enseigne ; période ; source
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58, r Monsieur le Prince Paris
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20, r de la Sorbonne Paris post 1903
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Distinction
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Legion d'Honneur 1889
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Catalogue
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Instruments de chimie et de physiologie 1873
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Catalogue g 1897
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Identifiant
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269
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ark:/18469/1q383