Soleil

NAME: Soleil, Jean-Baptiste-Francois

ACHIEVEMENTS: Optical instruments

DATE AND PLACE OF BIRTH: 1798, Paris, France

DATE AND PLACE OF DEATH AND AGE AT DEATH: 17 November 1878, Paris, France. Aged 80

DISCIPLINE: Optical instrument maker

FIELD: Optics

LANGUAGE: French

PARENTS :?

SIBLINGS:?

SPOUSE:?

CHILDREN:?

EDUCATION:?

MAJOR WORK:None

LIFE AND TIMES: 

Soleil learned about precision instrument-making while working in an engineering firm. In 1823 he began to work with <worked with> Fresnel* on projects for the French Lighthouse Commission. 

Fresnel designed compound lenses to replace the use of mirrors in lighthouses and Soleil supervised the construction of the lenses and the mechanism used to rotate them.  Soliel applied Fresnel's theory of wave optics to the making of his own first lens which he constructed under Fresnel's direction. 

After Fresnel's early death in 1827 Soleil set up his own successful business in Paris, where he invented and sold optical instruments.

The science of optics was developing fast, aided by discoveries like those of <work related to> Nicol* who published his method of producing polarized light in 1829.    Through Fresnel, Soleil  had contacts with scientists like <knew> Arago*,  who were developing optics and his business became very successful. 

One of the more notable devices he constructed was the diffraction bench, built for use for public demonstrations of light diffraction and interference.  His inventions also included an improved version of <improved work of> Biot's* saccharimeter. 

.ASSESSMENT:  The foremost optical instrument maker of his time.

EXTRA CONNECTIONS: None

ONELINER: J-B-F Soleil, major opticial instrument maker

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

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