Prosper-René Blondlot
Prosper -René Blondlot (* July 3, 1849, † November 24, 1930 ) was a French physicist. He became known as the "discoverer " of the N- rays, a phenomenon that was later exposed as self-deception.
Life
Blondlot was born in Nancy. He studied in Nancy, Heidelberg, Zurich and Paris, and in 1881 Dr. phil. doctorate. He taught physics at the Faculty of Science, University of Nancy, ( Professeur adjoint, titulaire from 1896 Professeur ) from 1886 as a professor. For his experimental work on implications of Maxwell's theory of electromagnetism, he was awarded three prestigious awards of the Académie des Sciences.
Along with Ernest Bichat, he proved that a Kerr cell responds to an applied electric field within a few tens of microseconds. For this purpose he used the rotating mirror method used by Léon Foucault for measuring the speed of light and developed them further, to the speed of wired (→ electrical conductor ) to measure electricity. So he could see the spark between two electrical conductors, a 1.8 km longer than the others, to photograph and measure the relative displacement of their pictures. In this way he was able to prove that the speed of the electric current is very close within a conductor of the speed of light.
In 1891 he was the first person who has the speed of radio waves measured using Lecher lines. For these measurements, he used 13 frequencies between 10 and 30 MHz; as a result, he received an average of 297.6 thousand km · s- 1, a deviation of less than 1% of the currently valid value for the speed of light. This result was an important confirmation of Maxwell's theory that there are electromagnetic waves in the light.
1903 Blondlot announced the discovery of a new form of radiation, the N- rays. This " discovery " took off during the following year much attention until finally Robert Williams Wood was able to show that the phenomenon described only existed in the subjective perception of the researchers involved and had no physical basis.
About Blondlot further life in Nancy, little is known. William Seabrook alleged in the biography written by him Doctor Wood, Blondlot would have become mentally ill as a result of exposure by Wood and finally died: "This tragic exposure Eventually led to Blondlot 's madness and death". This statement was made in 1957 by Martin Gardner, possibly unaudited taken over: " Wood's exposure led to Blondlot 's madness and death". In fact, practiced Blondlot his position as professor of physics until his premature retirement in 1910 further.
Awards
Was Blondlot on 15 May 1894 on the corresponding member ( Section de Physique Générale ) of the Académie des Sciences in Paris selected.
For his work in the field of electromagnetic waves, he was honored with three awards of the Academy of Sciences:
- Prix Plante
- Prix Lacaze
- Prix Leconte ( 1904).
Publications
- Recherches sur la EXPERIMENTALES capacité de polarization Voltaïque. Gauthier -Villars, Paris 1881
- Ernest Bichat, René Blondlot: Introduction à l' étude de l' Electricité statique. Gauthier -Villars, Paris 1885
- Introduction à l' étude de la thermodynamique. Gauthier -Villars, Paris 1888
- Rayon "N". Recueil des communications faites à l' Académie des sciences. Gauthier -Villars, Paris 1904