Lucien Lévy (11 March 1892 – 24 May 1965) was a French radio engineer and radio receiver manufacturer.
He invented the superheterodyne method of amplifying radio signals, used in almost all AM radio receivers.
His patent claim was at first disallowed in the United States in favour of the American Edwin Howard Armstrong, but on appeal Lévy's claim as inventor was accepted in the US.
Casimir Lefaucheux (French: [kazimiʁ ləfoʃø]; 26 January 1802 – 9 August 1852) was a French gunsmith. He was born in Bonnétable, France and died in Paris, France.
Casimir Lefaucheux obtained his first patent in 1827. In 1832, he completed a drop-barrel sporting gun with paper-cased cartridges.Lefaucheux is credited with the development of one of the first efficient self-contained cartridge systems. This 1835 invention, featuring a pinfire mechanism, followed the pioneering work of Jean Samuel Pauly in 1808-1812. The Lefaucheux cartridge had a conical bullet, a cardboard powder tube, and a copper base that incorporated a primer pellet. Lefaucheux thus proposed one of the first practical breech-loading weapons.In 1846, Benjamin Houllier improved on the Lefaucheux system by introducing an entirely metallic cartridge of copper brass.In 1858, the Lefaucheux pistolet-revolver became the first metallic-cartridge revolver to be adopted by a national government, becoming the standard sidearm of the French Navy.In May 1866, Ferdinand Cohen-Blind attempted to assassinate Otto Von Bismarck with a Pepper-box in Lefaucheux pistol
A 7 mm Lefaucheux revolver, used by Paul Verlaine to shoot and wound Arthur Rimbaud in 1873, sold for €435,000 at a 2016 Paris auction.It is thought likely that the gun with which the Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh fatally shot himself in a field in 1890 was a 7 mm Lefaucheux pinfire revolver. The pistol was found, extremely corroded, in 1960 and is on display at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.
Pierre Lallement (French: [lalmɑ̃]; October 25, 1843 – August 29, 1891) is considered by some to be the inventor of the pedal bicycle.
Henri Joly (1866–1945) was a French inventor and businessman. He developed early versions of motion picture film, cameras, and projectors.
René Alphonse Higonnet (April 5, 1902 – October 13, 1983) was a French engineer and inventor who co-developed the phototypesetting process with Louis Moyroud, which allows text and images to be printed on paper using a photoengraving process, a method that made the traditional publishing method of hot metal typesetting obsolete.
Paul (Louis-Toussaint) Héroult (10 April 1863 – 9 May 1914) was a French scientist. He was one of the inventors of the Hall-Héroult process for smelting aluminium, and developed the first successful commercial electric arc furnace. He lived in Thury-Harcourt, Normandy.
Raoul Grimoin-Sanson (1860–1941) was an inventor in the field of early cinema. He was born in Elbeuf, as Raoul Grimoin; he added the surname Sanson later. He had an early interest in stage magic as well as photography.
In the 1890s, Grimoin-Sanson began experiments in moving pictures, and desired to project films, like those from Thomas Edison's kinetoscope, on screen. In 1896, he invented a crude camera/projector combination called the Phototachygraphe. In 1897, he patented the Cinéorama, a panoramic film projection system involving ten synchronized projectors. The Cinéorama was demonstrated at the 1900 Exposition Universelle in Paris, but problems with heat from the projectors caused it to be shut down. Despite the failure of his Cinéorama company and of later film work, in the 1920s Grimoin-Sanson would attempt to claim to be one of the major pioneers of film, alongside Marey and the Lumières.
Émile Girardeau (12 October 1882 – 7 December 1970) was a French engineer, famous for being the first person to patent the original system of frequencies that is used and known today as radar. He was born in 1882 at Luçon, France (the Vendée).
In his early life he attended the École Polytechnique (Polytechnic School) (1902-1908) and became the Instructor at the École nationale des ponts et chaussées (National School of Bridges and Roads). By 1910, Girardeau established the first radiotelegraphic radio connection in tropical countries with Joseph Béthenod. The radio connection systems were designed for the Radioelectric French Company.
In 1919, Girardeau was promoted to Chevalier of the Legion of Honour for services in war. In 1922, Girardeau set in motion the idea for the creation of a public utility of information and music. Also in 1922, Girardeau helped establish the first private radio station in France, called RADIOLA, which at the end of March 1929 became Radio Paris. In 1931, Girardeau was promoted to Commander of the Legion of Honour.
In 1934, Girardeau headed the team which developed the first radar system in France. In 1939, Girardeau built with Maurice Ponte radar installations for the defence of Paris against planes (which were destroyed in June 1940). After the fall of France to Germany, Girardeau created a factory for underground forces of free France.
In 1944, Girardeau re-established radio communications in France. In 1945, Girardeau became a member of the Académie navale. In 1954, Girardeau became a member of the Académie des sciences morales et politiques. In 1970, Girardeau died in Paris.
Antoine Hercule Romuald Florence (February 29, 1804 – March 27, 1879) was a Monegasque-Brazilian painter and inventor, known as the isolate inventor of photography in Brazil, three years before Daguerre (but six years after Nicéphore Niépce), using the matrix negative/positive, still in use. According to Kossoy, who examined Florence's notes, he referred to his process, in French, as photographie in 1834, at least four years before John Herschel coined the English word photography.
