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Nom
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Gambey, Henry Prudence
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Date de naissance
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1787
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Date de mort
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1847
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Lieu de naissance
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Troyes
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Lieu de mort
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Paris
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Couverture temporelle
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1/2 19th century
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Couverture spatiale
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Paris
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Biographie
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The son of a clockmaker, Edmé-Prudence, Gambey learnt the basics of his craft from his father and imbibed some notions of physics and mathematics. After working for a short time with Fer(r)at at Bourg-la Reine, Gambey was briefly attached to the Lenoir workshop before accepting an offer from Ferrat (now director of the. workshop of the Ecole des Arts et Métiers at Chalons) in 1808, to join him there as his foreman. In Chalons, Gambey married Jeanne Marguerite Augustine Legrand (1788-1856). The following year however, following the death of his father, Gambey used his small inheritance to open his own workshop in Paris (1813?). This, with the support of the physicist François Arago, soon began to flourish in part because Gambey developed and made a sophisticated dividing engine and a series of other machine tools. In 1817 he offered a repeating circle for examination by members of the the Bureau des Longitudes and in March 1818 he produced a new form of theodolite which was adopted for use by the Bureau, The quality of Gambey's work rapidly brought him a formidable reputation, and a direct invitation to exhibit in the 1819 Industrial exhibition. Despite having only short preparation time of two months, Gambey was awarded a gold medal for a repeating and reflecting circle, a theodolite, an astronomical repeating circle, a day variation compass, and a comparateur. His products were also commended by the Royal Society in London as being of an elegance and precision unmatched in Europe.
In the following decades Gambey supplied instruments to the Bureau des Longitudes, of which he became a member in 1831 and to the Académie des Sciences in 1837. Under Aago's supervision, he made a meridian instrument with a one metre diameter circle and a mural circle of 2m diameter for the Paris Observatory, as well as the first cathetometer used by Dulong and Petit in their calorimetric researches, a heliostat fro Fresnel and an improved compass for Coulomb. In 1840, thirty sets of of metric measures (each consisting of a metre, a kilogramme, and a litre), destined for international comparisons were ordered from him by the French government, together with a comparateur accurate to a thousandth of a millimetre for length measures, and to half a milligramme for weight (1). The quality of his ivided scales rested on the remarkable dividing-engine which he designed and which was the subject of a sealed report to the Institut by Armand Séguier (2).His business was continued after his death by his widow and some of his workmen until 1855 when they exhibited an instrument begun by Gambey in the International Exhibition. (3).
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Notes biographiques
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1. Bigourdan 245. Boquet 498. Arago in L'Annuaire du Bureau des Longitudes, 1850.
2. This 'pli cacheté' deposited at the cadémie 22 August 1848, was opened on 25 January 1869. It was immediately published as 'Compte rendu de la méthode suivie par feu Gamqbey pour divisier le grand cercle murale de l'Obserfvatoire Impérial de Paris par le Baron A. Séguir, son confrère honoré de toute sa confiance et témoin de cette délicate opération' (Coptes en dus de l'Aacadémie des Sc iences, lxv ii 1869, 207-20).
3. Noitices of Gamlqbey ared t be found in the Bioigraphie Universele; N. B.G.., La Grfande En cyclopézdie; Larousse du XIXr siècle; Bocquet 1926; Brenni 1993; Le Guet-Tully & Soulu 2019 at http://bdl.ahp-numerique.fr/focus-instruments-fs-constructeur-mystere and further references there given; Durand-Soiyer.
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Adresse ; enseigne ; période ; source
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52, rue du Fbg St Denis, Paris (1809-32
57, rue St Antoine (c. 1827)
17, Rue de la Pierre Levée (workshop) 1832-47.
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Exposition année ; ville ; type ; récompense
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1819, National Paris, gold medal
1824, National, Paris, gold medal
1827, National, Paris gold medal
1855, International (Mme veuve), medal.
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Distinction
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Appointed to the Légion d'Honneur, 1827
Artiste adjoint, Bureau des Longitudes 1834
Artiste, Bureau des Longitudes, 1840
Member of the Academy of Ciences, Stokholm, 1841
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Catalogue
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None known
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Relation
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Ferr(r)at
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Identifiant
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ark:/18469/2p9jp