Background
Charles Fabry was born on June 11, 1867, in Marseilles, France. He was the fourth of five sons born to Auguste Charles Fabry and Léontine Claire Marie Estrangin.
1918
Fabry received the Rumford Medal from the Royal Society of London in 1918.
1919
In the United States Fabry's work was recognized by the Henry Draper Medal from the National Academy of Sciences (1919).
1921
In the United States Fabry's work was recognized by the the Franklin Medal from the Franklin Institute (1921).
Route de Saclay, 91128 Palaiseau, France
Fabry studied at the École Polytechnique in Paris.
15-21 Rue de l'École de Médecine, 75006 Paris, France
Fabry received his doctorate from the University of Paris in 1892, for his work on interference fringes, which established him as an authority in the field of optics and spectroscopy.
Charles Fabry was born on June 11, 1867, in Marseilles, France. He was the fourth of five sons born to Auguste Charles Fabry and Léontine Claire Marie Estrangin.
Like his father, grandfather, and two of his brothers, Fabry graduated from the École Polytechnique in Paris and received his doctorate from the University of Paris in 1892, for his work on interference fringes, which established him as an authority in the field of optics and spectroscopy.
After the customary assignment teaching at various lycées in France, Fabry returned to Marseille to teach and do research at the university; he remained there from 1894 to 1920.
Fabry worked primarily on the precise measurement of optical interference effects, an interest already apparent in his thesis, “Théorie de la visibilité et de l’orientation des franges d’interférence” (1892). He joined the laboratory of Macé de Lepinay, where this branch of optics was of primary concern. The majority of Fabry’s research projects involved an interferometer that he invented with Alfred Pérot.
First devised in 1896, the Fabry-Pérot interferometer is based upon multiple reflection of light between two plane parallel half-silvered mirrors. The distribution of light produced by interference of rays that have undergone different numbers of reflections is characterized by extremely well defined maxima and minima, and monochromatic light produces a set of sharp concentric rings. Different wavelengths in the incident light can be distinguished by the sets of rings produced. This instrument produced sharper fringes than that devised by the American, Albert Michelson. For spectroscopy, their apparatus cheaply duplicates the advantages of the diffraction grating. Fabry and Pérot continued to work together; for about a decade they applied their interferometer to spectroscopy and metrology; an important project, for example, involved determining a series of standard wavelengths.
From 1906 Fabry worked with Henri Buisson on similar experiments and applications of the interference technique. In 1912 they verified for helium, neon, and krypton the Doppler-broadening of emission lines predicted by the kinetic theory of gases - an effect that Michelson had verified for metallic vapors at low pressure. A simple method, devised in 1914, enabled Fabry and Buisson to confirm experimentally in the laboratory the Doppler effect for light. By their technique a horizontal rotating white disk is illuminated so that points at opposite ends of a diameter constitute equal sources of light moving in opposite directions; the disk is viewed at an oblique angle, and the interferometer then detects the difference in position of the sets of rings produced by light from the two ends of the diameter.
Fabry’s interest in astronomy - developed while observing with his brothers when they were students - led him to use the interferometer to study the spectra of the sun and stars, as well as to improve photometric techniques to measure the brightness of the nocturnal sky. As part of this work he showed that the ultraviolet absorption in the upper atmosphere is due to ozone.
As first director of the Institute of Optics and professor of physics both at the Sorbonne and at the École Polytechnique, Fabry spent the latter part of his life mainly in Paris. Fabry was interested in the popularization of science; he taught a large public course in eleetrotechnology and wrote some popular works.
Quotations: "My whole existence has been devoted to science and to teaching, and these two intense passions have brought me very great joy."
Fabry was elected to the Academy of Sciences in 1927. He was also a member of the International Committee on Weights and Measures, of the Bureau of Longitudes, and a Foreign Member of the Royal Society.
On May 7, 1900, Fabry married Claire Marguerite Marie Berthe Buser; the couple had no children.