Charles Devendeville (8 March 1882 in Lesquin – 19 September 1914 in Reims) was a French swimmer and Olympic champion. He competed at the 1900 Olympic Games in Paris, where he received a gold medal in the underwater swimming. He died of injuries during the First World War, at age 32.
Henri Alexis Tauzin (17 April 1879 in Paris – 11 October 1918 in Lyon) was a French athlete who competed in the early twentieth century. He specialized in the 400 metres hurdles and won a silver medal in Athletics at the 1900 Summer Olympics in Paris, his birthplace.Tauzin also competed in the 200 metre hurdles, finishing fourth in his semifinal heat to not advance to the final.
An administrative officer in the army, Tauzin was killed in action during World War I.
Henri Léon Émile Deloge (21 November 1874 in Saint-Mandé – 27 December 1961 in Bourg-la-Reine) was a French middle-distance runner who won a silver medal over 1500m in Athletics at the 1900 Summer Olympics in Paris ahead of John Bray. The race was won by Charles Bennett who won the gold medal. He also won the silver medal in the 5000 metres team race for the French distance team.Deloge also placed fourth in the 800 metres, after winning his semifinal heat with a time of 2:00.6. A repeat of that time would have won the final, but Deloge placed fourth instead with an unknown time (but one greater than 2:03.0, the silver medalist's time).
Jean Chastanié (24 July 1875 in Lorient – 14 April 1948 in Paris) was an early twentieth century French middle-distance athlete who specialized in 2500 metres steeplechase. He participated in Athletics at the 1900 Summer Olympics in Paris and won the bronze medal in the 2500 metre event. He also won the silver medal in the 5000 metre team race for the French distance team, as well as taking fourth place in the 4000 metre steeplechase.
Émile Adolphe Eugène Champion (August 7, 1879 in Laval, Mayenne – 4 August 1934 in Bordeaux) was a French track and field athlete, born in Paris, who competed in the early 20th century. He was a long-distance runner but specialized in the marathon and won a silver medal in Athletics at the 1900 Summer Olympics in Paris.
Helene Bresslau Schweitzer (25 January 1879 – 1 June 1957) was a German medical missionary, nurse, social worker, linguist, public medicine enthusiast, editor, feminist, sociologist, and the wife/confidant of Albert Schweitzer, who co-founded the Albert Schweitzer Hospital with her. Albert, a medical missionary, did not mention her role in his efforts. According to writer Mary Kingsley, she is "one form of human being whose praise has never adequately been sung, namely, the missionary's wife."
Benildus Romançon, F.S.C. (French: Bénilde; 14 June 1805 – 13 August 1862) was a French schoolteacher and member of the Brothers of the Christian Schools (De La Salle Brothers) who was declared a saint by the Catholic Church in 1948. His feast day is 13 August.
Louis Aimé Augustin Le Prince (28 August 1841 – disappeared 16 September 1890, declared dead 16 September 1897) was a French artist and the inventor of an early motion-picture camera, and director of Roundhay Garden Scene. He was possibly the first person to shoot a moving picture sequence using a single lens camera and a strip of (paper) film. He has been credited as the "Father of Cinematography", but his work did not influence the commercial development of cinema—owing largely to the events surrounding his 1890 disappearance.A Frenchman who also worked in the United Kingdom and the United States, Le Prince's motion-picture experiments culminated in 1888 in Leeds, England. In October of that year, he filmed moving-picture sequences of family members in Roundhay Garden and his son playing the accordion, using his single-lens camera and Eastman's paper negative film. At some point in the following eighteen months he also made a film of Leeds Bridge. This work may have been slightly in advance of the inventions of contemporaneous moving-picture pioneers, such as the British inventors William Friese-Greene and Wordsworth Donisthorpe, and was years in advance of that of Auguste and Louis Lumière and William Kennedy Dickson (who did the moving image work for Thomas Edison).
Le Prince was never able to perform a planned public demonstration of his camera in the US because he mysteriously vanished; he was last known to be boarding a train on 16 September 1890. Multiple conspiracy theories have emerged about the reason for his disappearance, including: a murder set up by Edison, secret homosexuality, disappearance in order to start a new life, suicide because of heavy debts and failing experiments, and a murder by his brother over their mother's will. No conclusive evidence exists for any of these theories. In 2004, a police archive in Paris was found to contain a photograph of a drowned man bearing a strong resemblance to Le Prince who was discovered in the Seine just after the time of his disappearance, but it has been claimed that the body was too short to be Le Prince.In early 1890, Edison workers had begun experimenting with using a strip of celluloid film to capture moving images. The first public results of these experiments were shown in May 1891. However, Le Prince's widow and son Adolphe were keen to advance Louis's cause as the inventor of cinematography. In 1898, Adolphe appeared as a witness for the defence in a court case brought by Edison against the American Mutoscope Company. This suit claimed that Edison was the first and sole inventor of cinematography, and thus entitled to royalties for the use of the process. Adolphe was involved in the case but was not allowed to present his father's two cameras as evidence, although films shot with cameras built according to his father's patent were presented. Eventually the court ruled in favour of Edison. A year later that ruling was overturned, but Edison then reissued his patents and succeeded in controlling the US film industry for many years.
Alfred Binet (French: [binɛ]; 8 July 1857 – 18 October 1911), born Alfredo Binetti, was a French psychologist who invented the first practical IQ test, the Binet–Simon test. In 1904, the French Ministry of Education asked psychologist Alfred Binet to devise a method that would determine which students did not learn effectively from regular classroom instruction so they could be given remedial work. Along with his collaborator Théodore Simon, Binet published revisions of his test in 1908 and 1911, the last of which appeared just before his death.
Joseph Pujol (June 1, 1857 – August 8, 1945), better known by his stage name Le Pétomane (, French pronunciation: [ləpetɔman]), was a French flatulist (professional fartist) and entertainer. He was famous for his remarkable control of the abdominal muscles, which enabled him to seemingly fart at will. His stage name combines the French verb péter, "to fart" with the -mane, "-maniac" suffix, which translates to "fartomaniac". The profession is referred to as "flatulist", "farteur", or "fartiste".It was a common misconception that Pujol passed intestinal gas as part of his stage performance. Rather, he was allegedly able to "inhale" or move air into his rectum and then control the release of that air with his anal sphincter muscles. Evidence of his ability to control those muscles was seen in the early accounts of demonstrations of his abilities to fellow soldiers.