30 August 1851

4 July 1921

Paris

Joigny

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

Paris

Carpentier, Ruhmkorff successeur

Carpentier studied at the Lycée Louis-le-Grand and at the Ecole Polytechnique (1871). In 1877/8 he purchased the business of Ruhmkorff which was close to bankruptcy. While continuing to make the classic machines of Ruhmkorff, in particular his induction coils, he diversified into the devlopment and manufacture of elctrical measuring instruments for scientific and industrial use. From 1879 study and development of the Baudot telegraph were undertaken most of the mechanical parts employed for it being developed and made in Carpentier's workshops. He exhibited a variety of electrical machines including the machine of Holz, electrical measuring instruments and chronographs and recording machines at the 1881 International Electricity Exhibition.1 Among these were several instruments developed in collaboration with Marcel Deprez (1843-1918. In 1881 the mobile dial galvanometer, conceived in collaboration with d'Arsonval (1851-1940), was produced, and in 1884 the measuring instruments used for the determination of the Ohm at the International Bureau of Weights and. Measures., In the 1890s it was Carpentier who developed cinematographic apparatus for Auguste and Louis Lumière. In 1903 he subscribed to Rouyer's study of Morez opticians.2 Patents for improvements to sterescopes were taken out in 1895, one of them with Léon Gaumont.3 According to Rudolph Kœnig (qv.), Carpentier was 'very rich and a constructor by preference rather than to make money'.4 On 13 May 1907 he was elected as an 'academician libre' of the Académie des Sciences and was a member of the Bureau des Longitudes. Fascinated by the automobile, he was killed in a car accident at Joigny. In a letter to Henry le Châtelier, Louis Lumière wrote 'J'ai été au courant jour par jour et presque heure par heure de l'état de notre malheureux ami et après avoir eu quelques lueurs d'espoir, il m'a fallu apprendre l'issue fatale. C'est pour moi un profond chagrin et je pleure le meilleur des amis, le coeur bon et généreux que vous connaissiez comme moi. L'affluence considérable qui se pressait à ses obsèques a montré de quelle estime générale il jouissait. Madame Carpentier avec un courage admirable a tenu à y assister jusqu'au bout, malgré l'état précaire dans lequel elle se trouvait encore, des suites de l’effroyable accident [...]' (5).

1. Cat. 1881., 11 no 3; 20 no 180; 41 no 580.
2. Rouyer subscription list where he is described as 'opticien'.
3. Corcy 31.
4. Pantalony 24.
5. 7 July 1921. Letter offered sale by Eberhard Köstler, Tutzing, catalogue 226 N° 174, February 2021.

'Note sur les variations des étalons en mercure', in Congrès International des electricians…24 au 31 août 1889. Procès verbaux sommaires, Comptes rendus des travaux, 1890.

Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur 1881

Officier de la Légion d'Honneur 1894

Commandeur de la F 1907

Membre du Bureau des Longitudes

1187

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Carpentier