Secretan Marc François Louis
Contenu
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Nom
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Secretan Marc François Louis
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Lieu de naissance
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Lausanne
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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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Biographie
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Marc-François-Louis Secretan, son of Samuel Secretan and Jeanne Charlotte Francillon-Marignac, was trained in law and practised as a barrister before becomings a district judge in the Lausanne region (1831-7), but abandoned this career for one in mathematics. During 1830-31, he studied at the 'Ecole d'officiers de Thoune where he became acquanted with Prince Louis Napoléon. In 1832 he became a Captain in the Engineering Corps of the Canton of Daud, and in 1838 was appointed professor of mathematics in the Académie de Lausanne, a post which he held until he moved to Paris in 1844. There he quickly became associated with Nicolas-Marie-Paymal Lerebours (1807-1873) in his precision instrument-making business. The formal partnership was established 15 February 1845 and on Lerebours retirement in 1854/5 Secretan became its sole owner.
Like his father Nicolas-Marie was a member of the Bureau des Longitudes and would therefore have been frequent contact with the Paris Observatory. It is therefore entirely natural that the company should have been involved in the making of an astronomical instrument which had been partly developed by an astronomer from that institution (Liais) and an instrument-maker (Froment) who was also closely associated with it. In this context, given the association between Froment and Foucault and Foucault's interest in electrical horology, it also seems natural that in the 1860s Secretan would be Foucault's collaborator in the silvering and testing of large glass telescope mirrors as well as the making of Foucault's clockwork telescope drives. Foucault, Froment and Secretan clearly constituted, in the mid-century, a formidable, if informal, research and development team.In 18 he manufactured instruments for the Panama Canal Company. [check also the details given by Yvon, 183]. In 1876 the company exhibited at Philadelphia but were criticised for showing a 32cm diameter telescope on an old-fashioned stand.
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Bibliographie
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'Les moyens principaux de calculer les logarithmes des nombres': thesis maintained at the Académie de Lausanne, 1838.
Catalogue et prix des instruments d'optique, de physique, de chimie, de mathématiques, d'astronomie et de marine qui se trouvent ou sexécutent dans les magasins et ateliers de... chimie, galvanoplastie, minéralogie..., 1863.
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Identifiant
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2994
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ark:/18469/1tphm