France 1949 – François Arago
Dominique François Jean Arago (1786–1853) was a French physicist, astronomer and statesman. Among his major
achievements was to establish the wave nature of light, in conjunction with
Augustin Fresnel. Arago also studied the polarization of light and is credited
with discovering the Sun’s chromosphere at the total eclipse of 1842.
Arago was director of the Paris Observatory from 1843-53 where he encouraged
U.J.J. LeVerrier to study irregularities in the motion of the planet Uranus,
which led to the prediction and subsequent discovery of Neptune. Arago also
worked on electromagnetism, which is presumably why he is shown alongside André Ampère on this stamp, part of a set of four marking the 1949 International Telephone
and Telegraph Congress in Paris.
Although the Gibbons catalogue describes its colour as Violet, this stamp is
printed in black. (Was the catalogue compiler working under strange lighting
conditions?)
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