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Nom
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Froment, Paul Alexandre Gustave
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Date de naissance
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3 March 1815
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Date de mort
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February 1865
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Lieu de naissance
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Rheims
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Lieu de mort
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Paris
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Couverture temporelle
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Mid-19th century
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Couverture spatiale
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Paris
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Société
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Froment, Dumoulin, Doignon
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Biographie
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Scion of a family well known locally during several generations for work in the mechanical arts, Froment studied at the Lycée Louis-le-Grand in Paris, and then at the Ecole Polytechnique whence he graduated in 1837, and where he became friendly with Henri Tresca. After a period devoted to industriala mechanics in Manchester, to the Philosophical Society of which city he read a paper on the fixing of photographic images, 9 January 1839, he entered the workshops of the leading instrument maker Henry Prudence Gambey in 1840., Froment established his own workshop in 1844 specialising in devices relating to steam, photography and, in particular, electricity. Both skilled and inventive, he made many innovations in the application of electricity to machine tools, to time measurement and its distribution, in telegraphy and in optics. Already in 1833 he had conceived his first electric motor modelled on one by Pixii. His application of electricity to a dividing circle accurate to a thousandth of a millimetre was a particularly happy invention, as was his electrical illumination system for the eyepieces of astronomical telescopes. In 1843-45, he developed dial telegraphs and subsequently made other innovations in this field, ceding to Breguet his patent for the invention of a key telegraph in 1854. He improved compasses for the Marine Nationale, contributed to the development of the Bonnelli loom, the 'electrotrieuse', Caselli's pantograph and Hughes printing telegraph, as well as developing electric clocks of which he showed his model at the Great Exhibition in London in 1851. A test band and an example of microscopic writing on a microscope slide were supplied to Teyler's Museum, Haarlem in 1851. (1). It was Froment who constructed Foucault's first pendulum and his gyroscopic appliances (2) Other notable scientists with whom he worked included Arago, Pouillet, Fizeau, and Lissajous. For his work in applying electricity Froment was named Chevalier in the L<egion d'Honneur in 1849 rising to Officier in 1864 (3). He quite frequently worked with in collaboration with his fellow Polytechnician Tresca on the Mechanical Committee of the Société d'Encouragement, on the juries of international exhibitions and on the Council of the Conservatoire. With Tresca he developed the comparateur used in the verification of standard litres in 1864, shown at the 1867 exhibition (4). For Béguyer de Chantcourtois, Professor of Geology at the Ecole de Mines, he produced a series of special drawing instruments for use in spherical geological representation (5). He took his son in law Pierre Dumoulin into partnership in 1865.
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Notes biographiques
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1. Turner ,G 174.
2. Foucault 138, 'Notre si habile constrfucteur … qui m'a si activement me secondé dans l'exécution de ce travail'. A Foucault mirror for measuring the velocity of light was acquired by Teyler's Museum in 1863 (Turner G, 52.
3. For accounts of much of Froment's electrical work see Du Moncel & Moigno. For accounts of his life Tresca; Laussedat. Known instruments include a compound microscope (Randier 17. 7. 1983 lot 89); an electric clock for Tyler's Museum (Turner G, 44); alidade N° 10 (Wilmart/Boisgirard 7. 12 1990 lot 13), and a dry card compass, Maine Impériale N° 345 (Wilmart 6. 12. 1994 lot 98).
4 'L'instrument permit de tracer les mètres à traits, de les comparer entre eux par mouvement longitudinal, ou par le mouvement transversal, à la température ambiante ou à celle de la glace fondante'. Bigourdan 237.
5. Chantcourtois 1.
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Bibliographie
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'Sur un instrument électrique à lame vibrante' Comptes rendus de l'Académie des Sciences, xxiv 1847, 428.
Im Jahr 1852 im Auflage der Sardinischen Riegerung einem dem Morseschen Telegraphen enlichen Schrfeib construirt' Plytechnisches Journal, clix 1853, 173.
'Rapport sur des perfectionnements apportés aux pendules de cheminée par M. Henri Robert, rue Chabannais', Bulletin de la Société d'Encouragement pour l'Industrie Nationale, 2e série v, 1858, 65-76.
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Adresse ; enseigne ; période ; source
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5, rue du ménilmontant, Paris 1851.
Rue Notre Dame des Champs, 1857.
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Identifiant
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360
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ark:/18469/1sm27