12 August 1861

1944/45

Thann (Haut Rhin)

3/4 19th century/1/2 20th century

Scion of a family of book-seller/binders, Jobin's father opted for retaining French nationality in 1872. Graduate of the Ecole Polytechnique and the Ecole militaire at Fontainbleau, Jobin became a Lieutenant of artillery in 1873 but abandoned the army in 1885 on his marriage with the Orleannais, Marie Madeleine Hue. After a first adventure in the production of steam engines and refrigerating machinery (Société Douanne, Jobin & Cie) in 1892 he purchased the business of Léon Laurent (qv). Continuing the production of Laurent, he was one of the leading suppliers of instruments of physical optics such as saccharimeters, polarimeters, photo-elastimeters and parallel plane interferometers but considerably modernising production methods (1). In 1902-03 he was one of the two vice-presidents of the Syndicat Patronal des Constructeurs en Instruments d'Optique & de Précision. In 1911 he supplied Nice Observatory with the spectro-heliograph used by Henri Chrétien. Jobin collaborated with Chrétien on the development of several optical instruments and the foundation of the Institut Optique (2). He supplied mirrors to the telescope-maker Georges Prin (qv), and exhibited three different sizes of Claude & Driencourt's prismatic astrolabe together with a range of theodolites, microscopes and repeating circles at the 1912 International Time conference in Paris. (3) He also collaborated with the phyicist Charles Fabry (1867-1945), and with the Laboratoire Curie (4). Member of the Bureau des Longitudes (1921), in 1923 he took G. Yvon (qv), his son-in-law into partnership. Yvon, who had been working in the company since 1911, was, like Chrétien, convinced of the necessity to develope manufacturing methods using the calculations of geometrical optics in order to meet the challenge of the ressurgent German optical industry. It was through the intervention of Jobin that the Syndicat Patronal de l'Optique agreed to finance the production of Chrétien's Calcul des Combinaisons optique which, although it did not appear until 1921 when Chrétien began lecturing at the newly founded Institut d'Optique with which both Jobin and Yvon were closely involved, was first planned in 1912 (45).

1 For the range of Jobin's production se IFIP 1901, 134-40.
2 For detailed description of their relation see Tully 2024.
3 Conférence… heure, 278.
4. Invoice to Fernand Holweck, 8 January 1923. institut Curie; AIR LC MC 213
5. Yvon 190-1.

Catalogue des astrolabes à prisme Claude et Driencourt, 1907.
'Rapport présenté à la Commission Interministerielle d'études d'un Institut Optique, February 197.
'Préface' to Henri Chrétien, Calcul des combinaisons optiques, 1927

R de l'Odéon, Paris

31, r Hauteville Paris 1912
31, rue Humboldt, Paris 14e (1923, see note 4. above)

1889 Paris Universal Grand prix

1900 Paris Universal Grand prix

261

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