Eugène Adrien Ducretet

Drawing of Ducretet in 1898, celebrating his November 5, 1898 transmission of radio signals between the Eiffel Tower and the Panthéon.

Eugène Adrien Ducretet (November 27, 1844 – 1915) was a French scientific instrument manufacturer, who performed some of the first experiments on wireless telegraphy (radio communication) in France. His father, Louis Joseph Ducretet, was a Savoy textiles merchant who moved to Paris. In November 1897 he transmitted radio signals 400 meters between his workshop and the Panthéon, attracting the interest of French President Félix Faure. On November 5, 1898 he caused a sensation with a public demonstration of wireless communication in the presence of representatives of the Académie des Sciences between the third floor of the Eiffel Tower and the Panthéon 4 km away. In 1897 he wrote to Russian physicist Alexander Stepanovich Popov, who had invented one of the first practical radio receivers but had not developed it, suggesting a collaboration. In 1898 he began to build radiotelegraph equipment using the Popov design. Between 1899 and 1904 he sold some of the first wireless stations to the Russian Navy, but the company was too small to provide the volume Russia needed. With his partner Ernest Roger he invented a type of telegraph key used in wireless telegraphy transmitters. In 1901 he wrote a book on the construction of wireless equipment

Ducretet married Amelie Vallat in 1866, and they had three children. When he died he left the company to his son Fernand and partner Ernst Roger. The company was sold to Thomson-Houston in 1931.