863
Biography
Gabriel Jonas Lippmann was born on August 16, 1845,
in Hollerich, Luxembourg, of French parents. The fam-
ily moved to Paris and in 1858 he entered the Lycée
Napoleon and ten years later École Normale. Lippmann
studied also in Germany, with Helmholtz in Berlin and
with Kirchoff in Heidelberg where he received the
degree of Doctor of Philosophy in 1873. In Heidelberg
he studied the relationship between electricity and cap-
illary phenomena which led to the development of his
capillary electrometer. In 1875 he moved to Paris and
later became a professor of Mathematical Physics at the
Sorbonne in 1883 and member of the Institute in 1886.
At the Sorbonne he was teaching acoustics and optics.
There he invented color photography and developed it
during ten years. Lippmann became a member of the
French Academy of Sciences in 1883 and its president
in 1912. He was a member of the Bureau des Longitudes
and a Foreign Member of the Royal Society in London.
In 1908 Lippmann was awarded the Nobel Prize in
Physics for his color photography technique. Lippmann
died at sea on July 13, 1921, on his return from a trip
to North America.
See also: Lumière, Auguste and Louis.
Further Reading
Bjelkhagen, Hans, A new optical security device based on one-
hundred-year-old photographic technique. Optical Engineer-
ing 38 (1999): 55–61.
Bjelkhagen, Hans, Lippmann photography: reviving an early
colour process. History of Photography 23, no. 3 (Autumn
1999): 274–280.
Connes, P., Silver salts and standing waves: the history of in-
terference color photography. Journal des Optics (Paris) 18
(1987): 147–166.
Fournier, Jean-Marc, Le photographie en couleur de type Lip-
pmann: cent ans de physique et de technologie. Journal des
Optics (Paris) 22 (1991): 259–266.
Fournier, Jean-Marc, and Burnett, Paul, Color rendition and archi-
val properties of Lippmann photographs. Journal of Imaging
Science and Technology 38 (1994): 507–512.
Ives, Herbert, An experimental study of the Lippmann color
photograp h. Astrophys ical Journal 27 (1908): 325–352.
Lehmann, Hans, Beiträge zur Theorie und Praxis Direkten
Farbenphotographie mittels Stehender Lichtwellen nach
Lippmanns Methode (Trömer, Freiburg i.Br. 1906).
——, Practical application of interference colour photography.
British Journal of Photography (Col. Suppl.) (4 Nov. 1910):
83–86, Practical application of interference colour photog-
raphy.
British Journal of Photography (Col. Suppl.) (2 Dec. 1910):
92–95.
Lippmann, Gabriel, Sur la théorie de la photographie des couleurs
simples et composées par la méthode interférentielle. Journal
de la Physique 3, no. 3 (1894): 97–107.
Nareid, Helge, A review of the Lippmann color process. Journal
of Photographic Science 36 (1988): 140–147.
Neuhauss, Richard, Die Farbenphotographie nach Lippmann’s
Verfahren. Neue Untersuchungen und Ergebnisse. Encyk-
lopädie der Photographie, Heft 33 (W. Knapp Verlag, Halle
a.S. 1898).
Senior, Edgar, Lippmann’s process of interference heliochromy,
in A Handbook of Photography in Colours, Section III,
316–343, Marion & Co., London 1900.
Valenta, Eduard, Die Photographie in natürlichen Farben mit
besonderer Berücksichtigung des Lippmannschen Verfahrens
sowie jener Methoden, welche bei einmaliger Belichtung
ein Bild in Farben liefern. Zweite vermehrte und erweiterte
Aufl age. Encyklopädie der Photographie, Heft 2, W. Knapp
Verlag, Halle a.S. 1912.LITERARY GAZETTE
also Journal of Belles Lettres, Arts, Sciences
The Literary Gazette was a weekly review of literature,
science and the fi ne arts that began publication on 25
January 1817. As well as being an important journal in
its own right, its format provided the model for subse-
quent periodicals like the Athenaeum. The character
of the Literary Gazette owed much to William Jerdan,
who edited the journal from July 1817 to December- Jerdan was a well-known fi gure on the literary
scene and contributors to the Literary Gazette included
Charles Lamb, Robert Southey, Edward Bulwer-Lytton,
and Sir David Brewster. The Literary Gazette was at its
most infl uential during the 1820s and 1830s before the
commencement of the cheaper Athenaeum. In 1832 it
was selling 4,000 copies a week, a large circulation for
the time. However by 1860 sales had dropped to around
1,000 copies.
As well as its literary merits, the Literary Gazette
reported on the meetings of the most signifi cant scien-
tifi c and learned societies. Its Parisian correspondent
also provided frequent short accounts of papers read
at the Academie des Sciences. Mitchell’s Press Direc-
tory (1847) declared that its pages “combine the ‘utile
et duce’ of periodical criticism, and are often the fi rst
to promulgate the novelties of science and literature.”
Jerdan himself was a member of the British Association
for the Advancement of Science and claimed to have at-
tended every meeting. His autobiography declared that,
with some assistance, he himself “made up the [science]
reports which fi lled hundred of columns of my publica-
tion” (Autobiography, vol. 4, 292). Although its articles
do not carry the same authority or technical detail as the
Athenaeum, several signifi cant developments in early
photography were announced in the Literary Gazette.
Henry Fox Talbot, Antoine Claudet, and Francis
Bauer were among the notable fi gures who sent let-
ters to the journal. Soon after Arago had made his
announcement of Daguerre’s process to the Academie
Des Sciences, Francise Baur championed the cause of
Niépce though a letter to the Literary Gazette that was
printed on 2 March 1839. Similarly, immediately prior
to making a patent for his calotype method, Henry Fox