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1 Chevalier, Charles-Louis
SUBJECT AREA: Photography, film and optics[br]b. 18 April 1804 Franced. 21 November 1859 Paris, France[br]French instrument maker and optician.[br]The son of a distinguished Parisian instrument maker, Charles Chevalier supplied equipment to all the major photographic pioneers of the period. He sold a camera obscura to Niepce de St Victor as early as 1826 and was largely responsible for bringing Niepce de St Victor and Daguerre together. Chevalier was one of the first opticians to design lenses specifically for photographic use; the first photographic camera to be offered for sale to the public, the Giroux daguerreotype camera of 1839, was in fact fitted with a Chevalier achromatic lens. Chevalier also supplied lenses, equipment and examples of daguerreotypes to Talbot in England. In 1841 Chevalier was awarded first prize in a competition for the improvement of photographic lenses, sponsored by the Société d'Encouragement of Paris. Contemporary opinion, however, favoured the runner-up, the Petzval Portrait lens by Voigtländer of Vienna, and Chevalier subsequently became embroiled in an acrimonious dispute which did him little credit. It did not stop him designing lenses, and he went on to become an extremely successful supplier of quality daguerreotype equipment. He was a founder member of the Société Héliographique in 1851.[br]Further ReadingPavillon de Photographie du Parc Naturel Régional de Brotonne, 1974, Charles-Louis Chevalier (an authoritative account of Chevalier's life and work).H.Gernsheim and A.Gernsheim, 1969, The History of Photography, rev. edn, London.JWBiographical history of technology > Chevalier, Charles-Louis
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2 Lumière, Charles Antoine
SUBJECT AREA: Photography, film and optics[br]b. 13 March 1840 Ormoy, Franced. 16 April 1911[br]French photographer and photographie manufacturer.[br]Orphaned when his parents died of cholera, at the age of 14 he was taken by his elder sister to live in Marcilly-le-Hayer. Apprenticed to a joiner, he was also interested in chemistry and physics, but his great love was drawing and painting. The leading water-colourist Auguste Constantin took him into his Paris home as an apprentice and taught him the whole business of painting. He was able to earn his living as a sign-painter, and numbered among his clients several photographers. This led to an interest in photography, which caused him to abandon the safe trade of sign-painter for that of photographer.Lumière took a post with a photographer in Besançon in 1862. He set up business on his own account in 1865 and moved to Lyons c.1870, joining his friend and fellow photographer Emile Lebeau. The business prospered; in 1879 he installed an electricity generator in his studio to run the newly invented Van de Weyde electric arc lamp, permitting portraiture in all weathers and at all times. With the arrival of the dry-plate process c. 1880, the Lumière business looked to employ the new medium. His second son, Louis Lumière (b. 5 October 1864 Besançon, France; d. 6 June 1948 Bandol, France; see under Lumière, Auguste), fresh from college, experimented with emulsions with which his 12-year-old sister coated glass plates. While still running the studio, Antoine started marketing the plates, which were the first to be made in France, and production was soon up to 4,000 plates a day. Under his guidance A.Lumière et ses Fils acquired a worldwide reputation for the quality and originality of its products.After his retirement from business, when he handed it over to his sons, Auguste (see Lumière, Auguste) and Louis, he took up painting again and successfully exhibited in several Salons. He was a Chevalier of the Légion d'honneur, a recognition of his participation in the 1893 World's Colombian Exposition in Chicago.[br]Further ReadingGuy Borgé, 1980, Prestige de la photographie, Nos. 8 and 9, Paris.BCBiographical history of technology > Lumière, Charles Antoine
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3 Photography, film and optics
See also: INDEX BY SUBJECT AREA[br]Ding HuanGabor, DennisKlic, KarolLippershey, HansMarton, LadislausTournachon, Gaspard FélixBiographical history of technology > Photography, film and optics
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4 Voisin, Gabriel
SUBJECT AREA: Aerospace[br]b. 5 February 1880 Belleville-sur-Saône, Franced. 25 December 1973 Ozenay, France[br]French manufacturer of aeroplanes in the early years of aviation.[br]Gabriel Voisin was one of a group of aviation pioneers working in France c. 1905. One of the leaders of this group was a rich lawyer-sportsman, Ernest Archdeacon. For a number of years they had been building gliders based on those of the Wright brothers. Archdeacon's glider of 1904 was flown by Voisin, who went on to assist in the design and manufacture of gliders for Archdeacon and Louis Blériot, including successful float-gliders. Gabriel Voisin was joined by his brother Charles in 1905 and they set up the first commercial aircraft factory. As the Voisins had limited funds, they had to seek customers who could afford to indulge in the fashionable hobby of flying. One was Santos- Dumont, who commissioned Voisin to build his "14 bis" aeroplane in 1906.Early in 1907 the Voisins built their first powered aeroplane, but it was not a success.Later that year they completed a biplane for a Paris sculptor, Léon Delagrange, and another for Henri Farman. The basic Voisin was a biplane with the engine behind the pilot and a "pusher" propeller. Pitching was controlled by biplane elevators forward of the pilot and rudders were fitted to the box kite tail, but there was no control of roll.Improvements were gradually introduced by the Voisins and their customers, such as Farman. Incidentally, to flatter their clients the Voisins often named the aircraft after them, thus causing some confusion to historians. Many Voisins were built up until 1910, when the company's fortunes sank. Competition was growing, the factory was flooded, and Charles left. Gabriel started again, building robust biplanes of steel construction. Voisin bombers were widely used during the First World War, and a subsidiary factory was built in Russia.In August 1917, Voisin sold his business when the French Air Ministry decided that Voisin aeroplanes were obsolete and that the factory should be turned over to the building of engines. After the war he started another business making prefabricated houses, and then turned to manufacturing motor cars. From 1919 to 1939 his company produced various models, mainly for the luxury end of the market but also including a few sports and racing cars. In the early 1950s he designed a small two-seater, which was built by the Biscuter company in Spain. The Voisin company finally closed in 1958.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsChevalier de la Légion d'honneur 1909. Académie des Sciences Gold Medal 1909.Bibliography1961, Mes dix milles cerfs-volants, France; repub. 1963 as Men, Women and 10,000 Kites, London (autobiography; an eminent reviewer said, "it contains so many demonstrable absurdities, untruths and misleading statements, that one does not know how much of the rest one can believe").1962, Mes Mille et un voitures, France (covers his cars).Further ReadingC.H.Gibbs-Smith, 1965, The Invention of the Aeroplane 1799–1909, London (includes an account of Voisin's contribution to aviation and a list of his early aircraft).Jane's Fighting Aircraft of World War I, London; reprinted 1990 (provides details of Voisin's 1914–18 aircraft).E.Chadeau, 1987, L'Industrie aéronautique en France 1900–1950, de Blériot à Dassault, Paris.G.N.Georgano, 1968, Encyclopedia of Motor Cars 1885 to the Present, New York (includes brief descriptions of Voisin's cars).JDS
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