André Blondel

André-Eugène Blondel (28 August 1863 – 15 November 1938) was a French engineer and physicist. He was the inventor of the electromechanical oscillograph and a system of photometric units of measurement.

Life Blondel was born in Chaumont, Haute-Marne, France. He became a professor of electrotechnology at the School of Bridges and Highways and the School of Mines in Paris.

Very early in his career he suffered immobility due to a paralysis of his legs, which confined him to his room for 27 years, but he never stopped working.

In 1893 André Blondel sought to solve the problem of integral synchronization, using the theory proposed by Alfred Cornu. He determined the conditions under which the curve traced by a high-speed recording instrument would follow as closely as possible the actual variations of the physical phenomenon being studied.

In 1899, he published Empirical Theory of Synchronous Generators which contained the basic theory of the two armature reactions (direct and transverse). It was used extensively to explain the properties of salient-pole AC machines.

He died in Paris on 15 November 1938.

Honours and awards Blondel was made a member of the French Academy of Sciences in 1913. He was appointed commander of the Légion d'honneur in 1927, and was awarded the Faraday Medal in 1937. He also received the medal of the Franklin Institute, the Montefiore award and Lord Kelvin award.

Society André Blondel was one of the founder members in 1930 of the Society of Friends of André-Marie Ampère which was created to develop the first science museum in France, the Ampère Museum close to Lyon.