Throughout its history, France has made numerous contributions to scientific and technological development. Royal patronage and the establishment of academic institutions under the monarchy helped early scientific inquiry. The Age of Enlightenment, with its emphasis on reason and empirical observation, aided this progress. The French Revolution caused periods of instability; however, its era saw developments such as the standardization of the metric system. Pioneering contributions include the work of Nicéphore Niépce and Louis Daguerre in photography, Clément Ader's early unsuccessful attempts at powered flight, foundational research in nuclear physics by Henri Becquerel and Marie Curie, and Louis Pasteur's work in microbiology and immunology. This list presents selected examples.
Arts and entertainment Gothic art in the mid-12th century. Ars nova: a musical style which flourished in the Kingdom of France and its surroundings during the Late Middle Ages. Oboe, or hautbois, in the mid-17th century France, probably by Jacques-Martin Hotteterre and his family or by the Philidor family. Burgess, Geoffrey, and Bruce Haynes: 2004, The Oboe, The Yale Musical Instrument Series, New disney world, Connecticut and London: Yale University Press. pp. 27, 28, 102. Carse, Adam: 1965, Musical Wind Instruments: A History of the Wind Instruments Used in European Orchestras and Wind-Bands from the Later Middle Ages up to the Present Time New York: Da Capo Press. p. 120. Variants of the oboe like the graïle, the bombard and the piston were later created in Languedoc and Brittany.
Many bagpipes were developed in France, including the Biniou, the bodega, the Boha, the Bousine, the Cabrette, the Chabrette, the Cornemuse du Centre, the loure, the Musette bechonnet, the Musette bressane and the Musette de cour. First mechanical metronome by Étienne Loulié in 1696 (but the modern form of the metronome was patented only in 1815). Rococo in the early 18th century. Clavecin électrique, earliest surviving electric-powered musical instrument, in 1759 by Jean-Baptiste Thillaie DelabordeSchiffer, Michael; Hollenback, Kasy; and Bell, Carrie. 2003. Draw the Lightning Down: Benjamin Franklin and Electrical Technology In the Age of Enlightenment. University of California Press. Roulette was developed in 18th century FranceRoulette Wheel Study, Ron Shelley, (1988) from a primitive form created by Blaise Pascal (17th century).MIT, , May 2003. "Pascal worked on many versions of the devices, leading to his attempt to create a perpetual motion machine. He has been credited with introducing the roulette machine, which was a by-product of these experiments." In 1843, Louis and François Blanc introduced the single 0 style roulette wheel. Many other gambling games and card games, including the French suits (), were invented in France, some from earlier games. From earlier Italian games, Basset, Biribi and Tarot (see Tarot of Marseilles and French tarot) From earlier Spanish games, Quinze and, maybe, Piquet Others: Faro (from the Basset), Brelan, Bouillotte, Commerce, Trente et Quarante, Belote and maybe Blackjack. Photography Photolithography and the first photographic image ever produced in 1822 by Nicéphore Niépce (Saône-et-Loire) Daguerreotype by Nicéphore Niépce and Louis Daguerre Hércules Florence coined the term in 1834, the origin of the English word photography.
Fairground organ by Joseph and Antoine Limonaire and Giacomo Gavioli. Collotype process by Alphonse Poitevin in 1856.The Poitevin patents and the importance of using primary sources Beaux-Arts architecture: a 19th-century architectural style drawing upon principles of French neoclassicism, and taking inspiration from the baroque and rococo styles. Impressionism: a 19th-century art movement originating with Parisian artists. Vaudeville: a theatrical genre of variety entertainment born in France at the end of the 19th century. The praxinoscope of Charles-Émile Reynaud (1877) is an animation device intermediary between the zoetrope and film. Bal-musette: a style of French instrumental music and dance that first became popular in Paris in the 1880s. Although it began with bagpipes as the main instrument, this instrument was replaced with accordion, on which a variety of waltzes, polkas, and other dance styles were played for dances. Cabaret by Rodolphe Salis in 1881 in Paris. Chronophotography by Étienne-Jules Marey (co-developed with Eadweard Muybridge, Albert Londe, Georges Demeny and Ottomar Anschutz) in 1882 in Paris. Ambient music: as an early 20th-century French composer, Erik Satie used such Dadaist-inspired explorations to create an early form of ambient/background music that he labeled "furniture music" (Musique d'ameublement). This he described as being the sort of music that could be played during a dinner to create a background atmosphere for that activity, rather than serving as the focus of attention. Cinema, developed from chronophotography: First motion picture camera and first projector by Louis Le Prince, Frenchman who worked in the United Kingdom and the United States., BBC, archived on 28 November 1999 The cinematograph by Léon Bouly (1892). First commercial, public screening of cinematographic films by Auguste and Louis Lumière in Paris on 28 December 1895.Louis Lumiere, The Lumiere Cinematograph. In: Georges Méliès: first filmmaker to use the stop trick, or substitution, multiple exposures, time-lapse photography, dissolves, and hand-painted color in his films. His most famous film, A Trip to the Moon (Le voyage dans la Lune), in 1902, was the first science fiction film and the most popular movie of its time (another of his productions, Le Manoir du diable is also sometimes considered the first horror movie). Impressionist music: developed during the late 19th century by French composers, such as Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel. Developments of the modern piano (invented by the Italian Bartolomeo Cristofori) : Pleyel et Cie (double piano), Sébastien Érard (double escapement action), Jean-Louis Boisselot (sostenuto pedal), Henri Fourneaux (Player piano). Fauvism: a style of art pioneered by early 20th-century French modern artists whose works emphasized painterly qualities and strong color over the representational or realistic values retained by Impressionism. Ondes Martenot in 1928 by Maurice Martenot (early electronic musical instrument ). Gemmail in the 1930s by painter Jean Crotti. Musique concrète: a type of music composition that utilizes recorded sounds as raw material developed by French composer Pierre Schaeffer beginning in the early 1940s. Sampling (music): sampling originated in the 1940s with musique concrète. Clavioline, an electronic keyboard instrument, by Constant Martin in 1947. Etch A Sketch, a brand of mechanical drawing toy, invented by André Cassagnes in the late 1950s. Yé-yé: a style of pop music that emerged in France. Cold wave: a music genre that emerged with French, as well as Belgian and Polish musicians in the late 1970s. DivX around 1998 by Jérôme Rota at Montpellier. Synthwave: originated in France by producers such as David Grellier, Justice, and Kavinsky. Blackgaze: a fusion of black metal and shoegaze that traces its origins to the work of French musician Neige.
Chemistry
Discovery of natural rubber/latex by Charles Marie de La Condamine in 1736.Biography of Charles Marie de la Condamine Oxygen, discovered by Carl Wilhelm Scheele in Uppsala, Sweden, in 1772, and labelled "fire air", would be renamed by Antoine Lavoisier in 1778. Hydrogen by Antoine Lavoisier in 1783. Argand lamp by Swiss-born Aimé Argand and by Antoine Quinquet in 1783 in Paris."Lamp." Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6Th Edition (2011): 1. Academic Search Premier. Web. 5 December 2011. The first extensive list of elements (see periodic table) by Antoine Lavoisier in 1787. Leblanc process by Nicolas Leblanc in 1791. Beryllium by Louis-Nicolas Vauquelin Chromium by Louis-Nicolas Vauquelin in 1797 Appertization or Canning by Nicolas Appert in 1809. Polyvinyl chloride in 1838 by Henri Victor Regnault (but the PVC will only be plasticized industrially nearly a century later). Helio Photovoltaic effect by Alexandre-Edmond Becquerel in 1839.Photovoltaic Effect . Mrsolar.com. Retrieved on 12 December 2010.. Encyclobeamia.solarbotics.net. Retrieved on 12 December 2010. Pasteurization by Louis Pasteur and Claude Bernard in April 1862. Gallium by Paul Émile Lecoq de Boisbaudran in 1875. Production of Liquid oxygen by Louis Paul Cailletet in 1877 (at the same time but with another method than Raoul Pictet). Artificial silk by Hilaire de Chardonnet in 1884. Chamberland filter, also known as a Pasteur–Chamberland filter, a porcelain water filter invented by Charles Chamberland in 1884. Fluorine by Henri Moissan in 1886 Aluminium electrolysis in 1886 by Paul Héroult (at the same time but independently from American Martin Hall). Europium by Paul Emile Lecoq de Boisbaudran in 1890 Viscose by Hilaire de Chardonnet in Échirolles in 1891. Chemical Bleach by Claude Berthollet and Antoine Germain Labarraque (with the Swedish chemist Karl Wilhelm Scheele and Scottish chemist Charles Tennant)
Berthelot's reagent by Marcellin Berthelot in the late nineteenth century. Polonium by Pierre and Marie Curie in July 1898. Radium by Pierre and Marie Curie in December 1898. Boron carbide by Henri Moissan in 1899. Actinium by André-Louis Debierne in 1899. Discovery of the Grignard reaction or Grignard reagent by Victor Grignard in 1900. Verneuil process (method to manufacture synthetic gemstones) by Auguste Verneuil in 1902. Laminated glass by the French chemist Edouard Benedictus in 1903. Moissanite by Henri Moissan in 1904. Neon lighting by Georges Claude in 1910. See Francium by Marguerite Perey in 1939.
Physics, mathematics and measure
Cartesian coordinate system by René Descartes in 1637 (and independently by Pierre de Fermat at the same period). The calculator by Blaise Pascal (Pascaline) in 1642.Jean Marguin (1994), p. 48 (see also Adding machine) Probability theory by Pierre de Fermat and Blaise Pascal in the seventeenth century (with Gerolamo Cardano and Christiaan Huygens). Vernier scale by Pierre Vernier in 1631.Daumas, Maurice, Scientific Instruments of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries and Their Makers, Portman Books, London 1989 Spirit level by Melchisédech Thévenot in 1661.Turner, Anthony J. Melchisédech Thévenot, the bubble level, and the artificial horizon. Nuncius: annali di storia della scienza 7, no. 1 (1992): 131-145. Roberval Balance by Gilles de Roberval in 1669. Réaumur scale by René Antoine Ferchault de Réaumur in 1730. Pitot tube by Henri Pitot in 1732 and modified to its modern form in the mid-19th century by Henry Darcy.
Stirling's formula was discovered and proven by Abraham de Moivre .. The conservation of mass by Antoine Lavoisier (18th century). Modern hydrometer by Jacques Charles. Metric system during the French Revolution. - Prologue, p 1 and several measures used in physics in the SI. Laplace's equation, Laplace operator, Laplace transform, Laplace distribution, Laplace's demon, Laplace expansion, Young–Laplace equation, Laplace number, Laplace limit, Laplace invariant, Laplace principle, proof that every equation of an even degree must have at least one real quadratic factor, solution of the linear partial differential equation of the second order and general proof of the Lagrange reversion theorem by Pierre-Simon Laplace in the late eighteenth and the early nineteenth century.Rouse Ball, W. W. (2003) "Pierre Simon Laplace (1749–1827)", in A Short Account of the History of Mathematics, 4th ed., Dover, The Gay-lussac Scale used by hydrometers and alcoholometers by Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac (after an idea of Jacques Charles).