Antoine César Becquerel (; 7 March 178818 January 1878) was a French scientist and a pioneer in the study of electric and

luminescent Luminescence is a spontaneous emission of radiation from an electronically or vibrationally excited species not in thermal equilibrium with its environment. A luminescent object emits ''cold light'' in contrast to incandescence, where an objec ...

phenomena.

Life

He was born at Châtillon-sur-Loing (today Châtillon-Coligny). After passing through the

École polytechnique (, ; also known as Polytechnique or l'X ) is a ''grande école'' located in Palaiseau, France. It specializes in science and engineering and is a founding member of the Polytechnic Institute of Paris. The school was founded in 1794 by mat ...

he became engineer-officer in 1808, and saw active service with the imperial troops in Spain from 1810 to 1812, and again in France in 1814. He then resigned from the army and devoted the rest of his life to scientific investigation. In 1820, following the work of

René Just Haüy René Just Haüy () FRS MWS FRSE (28 February 1743 – 1 June 1822) was a French priest and mineralogist, commonly styled the Abbé Haüy after he was made an honorary canon of Notre-Dame de Paris, Notre Dame. Due to his innovative work on cryst ...

, he found that pressure can induce electricity in every material, attributing the effect to surface interactions (this is not

piezoelectricity Piezoelectricity (, ) is the electric charge that accumulates in certain solid materials—such as crystals, certain ceramics, and biological matter such as bone, DNA, and various proteins—in response to applied mechanical stress. The piezoel ...

). In 1825 he invented a differential

galvanometer A galvanometer is an electromechanical measuring instrument for electric current. Early galvanometers were uncalibrated, but improved versions, called ammeters, were calibrated and could measure the flow of current more precisely. Galvanomet ...

for the accurate measurement of

electrical resistance The electrical resistance of an object is a measure of its opposition to the flow of electric current. Its reciprocal quantity is , measuring the ease with which an electric current passes. Electrical resistance shares some conceptual paral ...

. In 1829 he invented a constant-current electrochemical cell, the forerunner of the

Daniell cell The Daniell cell is a type of electrochemical cell invented in 1836 by John Frederic Daniell, a British chemist and meteorologist, and consists of a copper pot filled with a copper (II) sulfate solution, in which is immersed an unglazed earthenw ...

. In 1839, working with his son A. E. Becquerel, he discovered the

photovoltaic effect The photovoltaic effect is the generation of voltage and electric current in a material upon exposure to light. It is a physical phenomenon. The photovoltaic effect is closely related to the photoelectric effect. For both phenomena, light is a ...

on an electrode immersed in a conductive liquid. His earliest work was mineralogical in character, but he soon turned his attention to the study of

electricity Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter possessing an electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as described by Maxwel ...

and especially of

electrochemistry Electrochemistry is the branch of physical chemistry concerned with the relationship between Electric potential, electrical potential difference and identifiable chemical change. These reactions involve Electron, electrons moving via an electronic ...

. In 1837 he became a Fellow of the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

, and received its

Copley Medal The Copley Medal is the most prestigious award of the Royal Society of the United Kingdom, conferred "for sustained, outstanding achievements in any field of science". The award alternates between the physical sciences or mathematics and the bio ...

for his various memoirs on electricity, and particularly for those on the production of metallic sulphurets and sulphur by

electrolysis In chemistry and manufacturing, electrolysis is a technique that uses Direct current, direct electric current (DC) to drive an otherwise non-spontaneous chemical reaction. Electrolysis is commercially important as a stage in the separation of c ...

. He was the first to prepare metallic elements from their

ore Ore is natural rock or sediment that contains one or more valuable minerals, typically including metals, concentrated above background levels, and that is economically viable to mine and process. The grade of ore refers to the concentration ...

s by this method. It was hoped that this would lead to increased knowledge of the recomposition of crystallized bodies, and the processes which may have been employed by nature in the production of such bodies in the mineral kingdom. In biochemistry he worked at the problems of animal heat and at the phenomena accompanying the growth of plants, and he also devoted much time to meteorological questions and observations. He was a prolific writer. He died in Paris, where from 1837 he had been professor of physics at the Museum d'Histoire Naturelle. He became a correspondent of the Royal Institute in 1836; when that became the

Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (, KNAW) is an organization dedicated to the advancement of science and literature in the Netherlands. The academy is housed in the Trippenhuis in Amsterdam. In addition to various advisory a ...

in 1851, he became a foreign member. He was the father of the physicist A. E. Becquerel and grandfather of the physicist

Henri Becquerel Antoine Henri Becquerel ( ; ; 15 December 1852 – 25 August 1908) was a French nuclear physicist who shared the 1903 Nobel Prize in Physics with Marie and Pierre Curie for his discovery of radioactivity. Biography Family and education Becq ...

after whom the

SI unit The International System of Units, internationally known by the abbreviation SI (from French ), is the modern form of the metric system and the world's most widely used system of units of measurement, system of measurement. It is the only system ...

for radioactivity, the

becquerel The becquerel (; symbol: Bq) is the unit of radioactivity in the International System of Units (SI). One becquerel is defined as an activity of one per second, on average, for aperiodic activity events referred to a radionuclide. For applicatio ...

(Bq), is named. His surname is one of the 72 names inscribed on the Eiffel Tower.

Works

* ''Traité de l'électricité et du magnétisme'', 7 volumes, 1834-1840
Vol. 2vol. 5
* ''Éléments de physique terrestre et de météorologie'', 1841. * ''Traité de physique considérée dans ses rapports avec la chimie et les sciences naturelles'', 2 volumes, 1842.
Éléments d'électro-chimie appliquée aux sciences naturelles et aux arts
1843. ** * ''Traité complet du magnétisme'', 1846. * ''Traité de physique appliquée à la chimie et aux sciences naturelles'', 2 volumes, 1847. * * ''Traité d'électricité et de magnétisme, leurs applications aux sciences physiques, aux arts et à l'industrie'', 3 volumes, 1855-1856. ** ** ** * * ''Traité d'électrochimie'', 1865. *

Notes

References

*
Royal Society (brief biographical details)

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Becquerel, Antoine Cesar 1788 births 1878 deaths People from Loiret 19th-century French physicists French Roman Catholics Recipients of the Copley Medal École Polytechnique alumni Foreign members of the Royal Society Members of the French Academy of Sciences Members of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences Becquerel family

Life

Works

See also

Notes

References

External links