| RefNo | MS/242/29 |
| Level | Item |
| Title | Letter from Augustin Jean Fresnel to Thomas Young, dated at Paris |
| Date | 26 November 1824 |
| Description | Sent to Young as Secretary of the Royal Society.
Apologises for late answer to Young's letter of 17 November, but has been very sick. Barely strong enough to write a letter, the illness is probably due to the exhaustion resulting from examining [the exams at the Ecole Polytechnique], and writing a small treatise for the revue Europeenne. Has therefore realised he is too weak to write the article for Encyclopedia Britannica as requested by Young.
Not sure that his contribution to an English volume would have done much good anyway, judging from the lack of interest for his work and discoveries. [David] Brewster has claimed that the Cordouan Lighthouse lense is an application of his theory, despite the fact that the lens was made in France and that his theory was flawed [the system is now known as the Fresnel lens]. According to Arago there has also been little interest for [Fresnel's] advancement of the law of double refraction and his formulation to claculate the intensity of reflected light oblique to translucent bodies and the deviation of polarised field which have all led to his discovery of the law of total reflection of polarised light through diaphaneous media.
Even if Fresnel could demonstrate to [John] Herschel, [William Hyde] Wollaston and other English physicists still attached to the Newtonian system that the wave theory should be preferred and adopted, feels like they would say that Young's work on wave theory and double refraction is to be credited not [Fresnel's]. Feels that Young is getting all the credit despite the fact that they worked on equally difficult part of optics: "you have picked the flowers and I dug to discover the roots".
Admits to be embittered by sickness, though describes being motivated by the search for scientific discovery rather than glory. |
| Language | French |
| Extent | 4p |
| Format | Manuscript |
| PhysicalDescription | Paper |
| AccessStatus | Open |
Fellows associated with this archive
| Code | PersonName | Dates |
| NA7947 | Young; Thomas (1773 - 1829); physician, physicist and Egyptologist | 1773 - 1829 |
| NA7031 | Fresnel; Augustin Jean (1788 - 1827) | 1788 - 1827 |