Background
Lippmann was born on August 16, 1845, in Bonnevoie (now Luxembourg City), Luxembourg. His father, Isaïe, a French Jew, managed the family glove-making business at the former convent in Bonnevoie. His mother's name was Miriam Rose Lévy.
1908
Lippmann won the Nobel Prize in physics in 1908 for producing the first color photographic plate.
23 Rue Clovis, 75005 Paris, France
In 1848, the Lippmanns settled in Paris and Gabriel attended first the Lycée Napoléon (now Lycée Henri-IV).
45 Rue d'Ulm, 75005 Paris, France
In 1868 Lippmann enrolled at the École Normale Supérieure, where he failed the agrégation examination which would have enabled him to enter the teaching profession, preferring instead to study physics.
69117 Heidelberg, Germany
In 1872, the French government sent Lippmann on a mission to Heidelberg University where he was able to specialize in electricity with the encouragement of Gustav Kirchhoff, receiving a doctorate with "summa cum laude" distinction in 1874.
Lippmann was born on August 16, 1845, in Bonnevoie (now Luxembourg City), Luxembourg. His father, Isaïe, a French Jew, managed the family glove-making business at the former convent in Bonnevoie. His mother's name was Miriam Rose Lévy.
In 1848, the Lippmanns settled in Paris and Gabriel attended first the Lycée Napoléon (now Lycée Henri-IV) and in 1868 enrolled at the École Normale Supérieure, where he failed the agrégation examination which would have enabled him to enter the teaching profession, preferring instead to study physics.
In 1872, the French government sent him on a mission to Heidelberg University where he was able to specialize in electricity with the encouragement of Gustav Kirchhoff, receiving a doctorate with "summa cum laude" distinction in 1874.
Lippmann’s researches on electrocapillarity received recognition in the form of a doctorate awarded by the Sorbonne in 1875. In a paper published in 1876, Lippmann investigated the application of thermodynamic principles to electrical systems.
In 1883 Lippmann was appointed professor of mathematical physics at the Faculty of Sciences in Paris. In 1886 he succeeded Jules Jamin as professor of experimental physics and later became director of the research laboratory, which was subsequently transferred to the Sorbonne. He retained this position until his death.
Lippmann made numerous contributions to instrumental design, particularly in connection with astronomy and seismology. His most notable contribution was the invention of the coelostat. In this instrument the light from a portion of the sky is reflected by a mirror which rotates around an axis parallel to its plane once every forty-eight sidereal hours.This axis is arranged parallel to the axis of the earth. The light from the mirror enters a telescope fixed to the earth. The arrangement ensures that a region of the sky, and not merely one particular star, may be photographed without apparent movement. In this respect it represented an improvement on the siderostat. Lippmann later put forward a suggestion for the accurate adjustment of a telescope directed at its zenith by reflecting light from a pool of mercury.
In 1908 Lippmann was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics “for his method, based on the interference phenomenon, for reproducing colours photographically.” In the same year he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of London. In Lippmann’s color process the sensitive emulsion, which is relatively thick, is backed by a reflecting surface of mercury. As a result the incident light is reflected back toward the source, and the incident and reflected beams combine to produce stationary waves. After development the film is found to contain reflecting planes of silver separated by distances of half a wavelength. When the film is viewed by reflected light, the color corresponding to the original beam is strongly reinforced by reflection by from successive planes.
In the early stages of his career Lippmann collaborated with Bertin in the publication of Annales de chimie et de physique by abstracting German papers. This work led him to develop an interest in contemporary research in electricity. While on a scientific mission to Germany he was shown by Wilhelm Kühne, professor of physiology at Heidelberg, an experiment in which a drop of mercury, covered by dilute sulfuric acid, contracts on being touched with an iron wire and regains its original shape when the wire is removed. Lippmann realized that there was a connection between electrical polarization and surface tension and obtained permission to conduct a systematic investigation of this phenomenon in Kirchhoff’s laboratory.
These experiments resulted in the development of the capillary electrometer, a device sensitive to changes in potential of the order of 1/1,000 of a volt. Although the device could be calibrated, it was more usually employed in potentiometer and bridge measurements as a null instrument. It possessed the advantage, significant at the time, of being independent of magnetic and electric fields.
Lippmann also devised a number of improvements on observational technique by the introduction of photographic or electrical methods of measurement. These include a method for the measurement of the difference in longitude between two observatories by means of radio waves and photography and an improvement on the method of coincidences for measuring the difference between the periods of two pendulums. The pendulum measurements involve the use of a high-speed flash photograph to determine the change in phase over a short interval of time. Lippmann later investigated the problem of maintaining a pendulum in continuous oscillation. He showed that the period will be unaffected if the maintaining impulse is applied at the instant the pendulum swings through the point of zero displacement. The necessary impulse could, he suggested, be obtained by alternately charging and discharging a capacitor through coils mounted on either side of the pendulum. This arrangement ensures that the impulse is of short duration and is independent of wear on the pendulum contacts.
Lippmann married the daughter of the novelist Victor Cherbuliez in 1888.