Jean-Baptiste François Soleil (1798–1878) was a French optician and engineer. He invented the Babinet–Soleil compensator.

Biography

In 1819, Soleil founded a company operating under his name at 23 Passage Vivienne in Paris, specialised in making optics instruments for such notable researchers as

Augustin-Jean Fresnel Augustin-Jean Fresnel (10 May 1788 – 14 July 1827) was a French civil engineer and physicist whose research in optics led to the almost unanimous acceptance of the wave theory of light, excluding any remnant of Isaac Newton, Newton's c ...

François Arago Dominique François Jean Arago (), known simply as François Arago (; Catalan: , ; 26 February 17862 October 1853), was a French mathematician, physicist, astronomer, freemason, supporter of the Carbonari revolutionaries and politician. Early l ...

Léon Foucault Jean Bernard Léon Foucault (, ; ; 18 September 1819 – 11 February 1868) was a French physicist best known for his demonstration of the Foucault pendulum, a device demonstrating the effect of Earth's rotation. He also made an early measuremen ...

and

Jacques Babinet Jacques Babinet (; 5 March 1794 – 21 October 1872) was a French physicist, mathematician, and astronomer who is best known for his contributions to optics. Among Babinet's accomplishments are the 1827 standardization of the angstrom unit f ...

. In 1825 he moved business to 21, rue de l'Odéon. In 1843, he made a heliostat for Jean Thiébault Silbermann.Henri Chamoux,
Héliostat de Silbermann
, vidéo, dans ''Inventaire des instruments scientifiques anciens dans les établissements publics'', Ressources numériques en histoire de l'éducation, consulté le 13 juin 2014 In 1849, the business was split between to divisions under his son Henri Soleil, and his son-in-law

Jules Duboscq Louis Jules Duboscq (March 5, 1817 – September 24, 1886) was a French instrument maker, inventor, and pioneering photographer. He was known in his time, and is remembered today, for the high quality of his optical instruments. Life and wo ...

. The Soleil division went on under Laurent Soleil, and has now been renamed to Jobin Yvon. The Duboscq division was renamed to Duboscq Pellin in 1883, and puis Pellin in 1886. In 1852, the Soleil workshop was purchased by Louis Sautter, maker of Fresnel lesnes for lighthouses, who founded Sautter et Cie, later Sautter-Lemonnier et Cie, and eventually Sautter-Harlé.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Soleil, Jean-Baptiste 1798 births 1878 deaths French engineers