| RefNo | MS/242/25 |
| Level | Item |
| Title | Letter from Augustin Jean Fresnel to Thomas Young, dated at Paris |
| Date | 18 February 1823 |
| Description | Addressed to Young as secretary of the Royal Society.
Sending six copies of a summarised version of a lecture he gave at the Institut [de France] in December 1822, copies to be given to the Royal Society; [William] Hyde Wollaston; [John] Herschel; [David] Brewster; [John] Leslie. It was abridged for the Bulletin of the Société Philomatique and shortened to the extent that it may seem difficult to follow for any English physician. Defines circular polarisation, and explains the experiments that enabled him to prove the laws that underpin it, as published in 1821 in the Annales de Chimie et de Physique. Hopes to send a forthcoming publication to Young in England and asks about the English postal system.
Notes that his successive submissions and presentations at the Academie des sciences have not been enough for him to be nominated for election: [Pierre Louis] Dulong has been nominated to the Physics section, following [Jean Baptiste] Fourier's election to the role of Secretaire Perpetuel. Feels that although Dulong is a fine physicist, he is also a chemist and could have been elected for the Chemistry section if the Academy had cared enough to elect Fresnel. This is a proof that the theory of waves in optics has not brought Fresnel much luck. |
| Language | French |
| Extent | 4p |
| Format | Manuscript |
| 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 |