Are you familiar with Jacques Curie, piezoelectricity in all its forms?
Is it still necessary to point out that innovation is not the preserve of a single scientific discipline or individual, but is often a collective effort, bringing together different sensibilities and scientific fields? This was certainly the case for Jacques Curie, a physicist and mineralogist who was appointed lecturer at the University of Montpellier in 1883, defended his thesis in Paris in 1888, and was awarded a chair in physics and mineralogy at the University of Montpellier in 1904.
Jacques Curie played a crucial, sometimes overlooked role in groundbreaking discoveries that are still widely used today. Jacques Curie was the brother of Pierre Curie (Marie Skłodowska-Curie and Pierre Curie shared the 1903 Nobel Prize in Physics with Henri Becquerel for their research on radiation). Jacques Curie was the co-discoverer of the piezoelectric effect [1] in 1880, while they were both working at the Faculty of Sciences in Paris.
Jacques Curie's contribution was essential [2]: he had more experience than his brother in the study of pyroelectricity.
This was not merely a theoretical discovery, because a few years later, an instrument was developed that could measure small amounts of electricity (10-13 A). This instrument made it possible to offer a very precise measurement system, never before achieved. "To measure the very weak currents that can be passed through air ionized by uranium rays, I had at my disposal an excellent method studied and applied by Pierre and Jacques Curie." Pierre and Marie Curie, 1923.
It was thanks to this instrument that it became possible to detect the presence of two new radioactive elements in uranium ore: polonium and radium. The instrument was subsequently used in numerous experiments until 1950. (image: collection of the University of Montpellier, read the description)
We are therefore at the crossroads of several disciplines: physics, electricity, and chemistry, which has led to significant scientific advances. But the adventure doesn't end there, because even though the term didn't exist yet, the Curie brothers took real steps to promote it by creating the Société Centrale des Produits Chimiques (SCPC, a company that disappeared in 1996!), which made it possible to market this measurement system. Beyond the discovery of new chemical compounds, the piezoelectric effect revolutionized many fields, with multiple applications: sonar, oscillators, gas lighters, microphones, watchmaking with quartz watches, and more.
Jacques Curie, buried in Saint Lazare Cemetery in Montpellier in 1941, discreetly contributed to a veritable technological revolution by combining theoretical and experimental science. Let us remember Jacques Curie, especially here in Montpellier.
Eighty years later, more than 750 scientists from ISITE MUSE's MIPS (Mathematics, Computer Science, Physics, and Systems) division are now working every day to build our future through their research activities.
[1] Pierre and Jacques were interested in the electrical properties of crystals, and they quickly discovered that quartz, as well as other rarer crystals such as tourmaline and topaz, produce electrical charges when compressed or stretched along certain specific axes.
[2] Shaul Katzir, "The Discovery of the Piezoelectric Effect," Archives for the History of Exact Sciences, vol. 57, 2003, pp. 61-91.