Gabriel Lippmann

Franco-Luxembourgish physicist and inventor, and 1908 Nobel laureate in physics for his method of reproducing colours photographically based on the phenomenon of interference.

In 1886, Lippmann's scientific interest turned to a method of fixing the colours of the solar spectrum on a photographic plate. By April 1892, he was able to report that he had succeeded in producing colour images of a stained glass window, a group of flags, a bowl of oranges topped by a red poppy and a multicoloured parrot. He presented his theory of colour photography using the interference method in two papers to the Academy of Sciences, one in 1894, the other in 1906.

Lippmann's process foreshadowed laser holography, which is also based on recording standing waves in a photographic medium. Denisyuk reflection holograms, often referred to as Lippmann-Bragg holograms, have similar laminar structures that preferentially reflect certain wavelengths.

Lippmann made several other important contributions to various branches of physics over the years, including the capillary electrometer, the converse piezoelectric effect, integral photography and the coelostat.

He died on 13 July 1921, aged 75, aboard the steamer France while en route from Canada.