Augustin Fresnel, a civil engineer born in 1788, proved by experiment what Newton had dismissed: light travels as a wave. We owe him the stepped lens, a stack of glass rings that concentrates the light without the weight of a solid block, and which still equips the lighthouses of the whole world. He never patented it and died without a fortune, in 1827.
The story
Augustin Jean Fresnel was born at Broglie, in Normandy, on 10 May 1788. A bridges and highways engineer, he pursued his research on light in the margins of his job, and proved by experiment what Newton had ruled out: light behaves as a wave.
His work on diffraction and polarisation put the wave theory beyond argument. The Royal Society awarded him the Rumford Medal in 1824; the academies of Europe made him a corresponding member.
His most visible invention is the Fresnel lens: a stack of prismatic rings that gathers light without the weight of a solid lens. It is fitted in lighthouses the world over, and the principle still serves stage lamps and camera lenses.
He never patented it. The Lighthouse Commission adopted it, the coasts were fitted out with it, and the engineer died without a franc from it.
Tuberculosis carried him off at Ville-d'Avray on 14 July 1827, at thirty-nine. He lies in Division 14 with his uncle Jean François Léonor Mérimée, a painter — and the father of Prosper Mérimée.
The grave
The inscription is remarkably brief for a scientist of such stature: “To the memory of Augustin Jean Fresnel, member of the Institut de France.” No dates, no engineering post, no mention of light or of lighthouses. His uncle Jean François Léonor Mérimée (1757-1836), painter and secretary of the École des beaux-arts, rests with him: he was the father of Prosper Mérimée, whose novella “Carmen” would give Bizet's opera its subject, in Division 68.
On site, do not miss
A one-line epitaph — “member of the Institut de France” — without a word about the lighthouses he equipped.
Visitors' questions
Where is Augustin Fresnel's grave?
In Division 14, at the Grand Rond junction, fifth row — not far from Casimir Périer's mausoleum and Raspail's sculpture. The inscription is limited to his name and the Institut de France.
François-Vincent RaspailWhat is the Fresnel lens?
A stack of prismatic rings that concentrates light without the weight of a solid lens. It equips lighthouses the world over, and its principle is still used in spotlights and cameras.
Claude ChappeWhat did he demonstrate about light?
That it behaves like a wave, which Newton had ruled out. His work on diffraction and polarisation founded the wave theory of light, and earned him the Royal Society's Rumford Medal in 1824.
Joseph FourierWho rests with him?
His uncle Jean François Léonor Mérimée, a painter, who died in 1836 — and father of the writer Prosper Mérimée, the author of “Carmen”. The grave thus unites science and literature in a single family.
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