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One of the New York Times Best True Crime of 2022 A “spellbinding, thriller-like” (Shelf Awareness) history about the invention of the motion picture and the mysterious, forgotten man behind it—detailing his life, work, disappearance, and legacy.The year is 1888, and Louis Le Prince is finally testing his “taker” or “receiver” device for his family on the front lawn. The device is meant to capture ten to twelve images per second on film, creating a reproduction of reality that can be replayed as many times as desired. In an otherwise separate and detached world, occurrences from one end of the globe could now be viewable with only a few days delay on the other side of the world. No human experience—from the most mundane to the most momentous—would need to be lost to history. In 1890, Le Prince was granted patents in four countries ahead of other inventors who were rushing to accomplish the same task. But just weeks before unveiling his invention to the world, he mysteriously disappeared and was never seen or heard from again. Three and half years later, Thomas Edison, Le Prince's rival, made the device public, claiming to have invented it himself. And the man who had dedicated his life to preserving memories was himself lost to history—until now. The Man Who Invented Motion Pictures pulls back the curtain and presents a “passionate, detailed defense of Louis Le Prince…unfurled with all the cliffhangers and red herrings of a scripted melodrama” (The New York Times Book Review). This “fascinating, informative, skillfully articulated narrative” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review) presents the never-before-told history of the motion picture and sheds light on the unsolved mystery of Le Prince's disappearance.

The true story of the French engineer and inventor who developed a mine detector for the US Army during WWII—and then went on to transform the oil industry. In March 1940, with Europe at war, French army lieutenant Henri-Georges Doll came to the U.S. embassy in Paris to give a deposition. Doll was an artillery commander, a graduate of France's grandes écoles of science, engineering, and service. He had been mobilized to the front at the start of the war, then quickly recalled to Paris to work on a secret device for detecting the deadly land mines being planted by the German army on a vast new scale. But Doll's deposition that day had nothing to do with the war. He had come to testify in a patent lawsuit pending in Houston, Texas. The case was Schlumberger Well Surveying Corporation v. Halliburton Oil Well Cementing Company: it marked one of the first great industrial battles for control of the technology of oil and gas exploration. When the German army marched into Paris three months later, Doll escaped to America, where he developed his new mine detector for the U.S. army, then settled in a small Connecticut town to become one of the most prolific inventors of the twentieth century. His sixth sense for applied science would help create the modern technology of seeing underground using electrical signals and sound waves—technology that would enable the explosive growth of oil production, and of Schlumberger, after the war. This biography tells his remarkable story.

Extrait :'Les aérostats (ballons) ont été inventés par les frères Montgolfier en 1783, et perfectionnés par le physicien Charles et le savant Nicolas Conté. Pilâtre de Rozier et le marquis d'Arlande furent les premiers qui osèrent, dès 1783, s'aventurer dans une nacelle suspendue à une montgolfière. Au nombre de nos contemporains qui depuis cinquante ans ont fait servir les aérostats à des expériences scientifiques, on doit citer : MM. Gay-Lussac et Arago.'À PROPOS DES ÉDITIONS LIGARAN : Les éditions LIGARAN proposent des versions numériques de grands classiques de la littérature ainsi que des livres rares, dans les domaines suivants : • Fiction : roman, poésie, théâtre, jeunesse, policier, libertin. • Non fiction : histoire, essais, biographies, pratiques.

In the latter half of the 19th century, Gustave Pierre Trouve, a modest but brilliant Parisian electrical engineer, conceived and patented some 75 inventions, including the endoscope, the electric car and the frontal headlamp. He also designed an electric boat--complete with outboard motor, headlight and horn--an electric rifle, an electric piano and luminous fountains, and developed wearable technology and ultraviolet light therapy. Unlike his famous contemporary Nikola Tesla, who worked for Thomas Edison and was patronized by George Westinghouse, Trouve never came to America. A confirmed bachelor disinterested in industrialization, he was gradually forgotten following his accidental death in 1902. This expanded edition of the 2012 French first-ever biography of Trouve details the fascinating life of the Chevalier of the Legion of Honor once dubbed'the French Edison.'

Swimming under the sea, looking at ocean life, is a very popular pastime. But there was a time when SCUBA diving did not exist. People had to wear very heavy diving suits, boots, and helmets. They could not swim freely and easily. Jacques Cousteau changed all that! Read about his invention of the Aqua-Lung and how his love of swimming as a boy led to a lifetime of adventure, movie-making, and discovery.

Etienne Mollier (1876-1962) est né dans le Dauphiné. Fasciné par la mécanique, ce fils de boulanger découvre à Grenoble les moteurs, l'électricité et la mécanique de précision. A Paris, il se passionne pour la photographie et l'optique. Il reçoit pour la création d'un petit appareil photo la médaille du concours Lépine en 1910, une longue série d'inventions verront le jour dont le premier rétroprojecteur.

Entre 1850 et 1851, Marinoni va participer aux premiers essais de la rotative à bobine et à clichés cylindriques de Jacob Worms pour la presse périodique, à la demande du patron de presse Emile de Girardin. A partir de 1866, Marinoni, marchant sur les pas de Girardin, s'oppose à la tradition anglo-saxonne de la rotative avec caractères mobiles. En novembre 1872, il livre la première'machine cylindrique à papier continu'de France pour la presse quotidienne. A partir de 1882, Marinoni prend la tête du Petit Journal et en fait le premier groupe mondial de presse, en s'efforçant d'intéresser le plus grand nombre aux questions d'intérêt général, aux enjeux de la Revanche et aux valeurs de la III° République.

En 1890, un savant solitaire découvrait un phénomène qui allait révolutionner les moyens de communications… Cet ouvrage retrace l'aventure qui va mener sur un rythme fulgurant, de la découverte de la radioconduction à la révolution technologique et culturelle que nous connaissons. Au tournant du XXe siècle, les avancées en physique révèleront l'importance de la découverte de Branly. Après les premières tentatives de transmission sans fil, une quinzaine d'années seulement séparera ces premiers essais sur quelques mètres (1890) à la première liaison TSF à travers l'Atlantique (1901). Cet essor extraordinaire sauvera la Tour Eiffel de la destruction et sera immortalisé par le nom donné au quai qui la jouxte, le fameux quai Branly. Aujourd'hui, les télécommunications utilisent l'ensemble du spectre offert par les ondes électromagnétiques : un monde d'une puissance impressionnante, qui est loin d'avoir révélé tous ses effets et ses applications. Une dernière partie du livre présente l'application de cette découverte aux XXe et XXIe siècles, avec son cortège d'ondes électromagnétiques. Jean-Claude Boudenot, ingénieur agrégé en physique, pilotait les activités de recherches en nanotechnologies au sein de Thales Research & Technology et enseignait à l'Institut Supérieur d'Électronique de Paris (ISEP). Auteur de plusieurs ouvrages de physique et d'histoire de la physique, il était également membre de la Société Française de Physique, membre émérite de la Société des Électriciens (SEE) et membre senior de l'IEEE.