Camille Tissot

Last updated

Camille Papin Tissot
Born(1868-10-15)October 15, 1868
DiedOctober 2, 1917(1917-10-02) (aged 48)

Camille Papin Tissot (15 October 1868 2 October 1917) was a French naval officer and pioneer of wireless telegraphy who established the first French operational radio connections at sea.



Camille Papin Tissot was the second child of Pierre Tissot and Adeline Alexandrine Gérardin, born on 15 October 1868. Their third child, Esther Adèle Tissot, was born on 1 April 1872. The two surviving children, Camille and Esther, were primarily raised by their mother, as their father was often at sea.

Recommended by his father, Camille Tissot entered the naval college at Brest in 1884 when he was 16 years old. He studied navigation on the school ship Le Borda until 1886, and was then posted to the port of Brest. In the first years of his career in the navy, he was successively posted to various school ships and warships, finally to the cruiser "Coetlogon". He then turned to shore duty as of 23 January 1891. He agreed to temporarily occupy one of the teaching positions in physics and chemistry of the naval school. He stayed on for 21 years as a professor in École Navale. [1] The passion of sciences having been transmitted to him by his father, he obtained the degree of Bachelor of the Physical sciences. It was as a professor in École Navale that he became devoted to the study of the electric oscillations and their application in the maritime field.

Tissot acquired ranks during his various assignments: [1]

This last promotion was exceptional for a sailor who practically never sailed. It was due to the importance of the work undertaken by Tissot for the Navy.

In 1894, Camille Tissot met and married Jeanne Emma Stapfer, a 20-year-old woman of an Alsacienne family who moved to Brest in 1870. He nominally converted to the Catholic religion at the request of his father-in-law, although his own beliefs were socialist and atheist. Among the guests at his wedding were Albert Turpain and Marcel Cachin, very committed members of Parliament and future founder of French Communist Party in 1920. They had one daughter, Camille.


In 1902 Tissot used a coherer receiver of this type at the lighhouse at Ushant, communicating over a range of 80 kilometers. Recepteur tube limaille.JPG
Article by Camille Tissot, published in the ndeg 57 of July 1906 of the bulletin of the "Company of the Electricians" (Societe des electriciens). SIE ndeg57 tire a part TISSOT (dedicace a Maurice JEANCE).JPG
Article by Camille Tissot, published in the n° 57 of July 1906 of the bulletin of the "Company of the Electricians" (Société des électriciens).

In 1896, when the work of Lodge and of Marconi concerning wireless telegraphy was still little known, Tissot undertook parallel and independent research. He built apparatus for radio experiments with the assistance of E. Branly and of the manufacturer Eugene Ducretet for whom later he will develop apparatus.

On 3 August 1898, Tissot demonstrates the first French operational radio connection at sea, covering 800 meters between "BORDERED" and an on-shore semaphore station. Convinced, the Minister of Marine on 6 August agrees to finance purchase of material to allow him to continue his tests. With this apparatus Camille Tissot in 1899 organized a large trial run and demonstrates communications by radio, initially between various points of the roads of Brest and the Saint Martin church, then to the islands Vierge (Plouguerneau) and Stiff (Ushant).

In 1898 he also established radio contact to the island of Ouessant. This station will become Ushant radio station, with call sign FFU ( French Fixe of Ushant), which is active there until 1943.

In 1899, Tissot published a report describing his work and experiments through the roads of Brest. In 1900, Tissot equipped the French Navy with its first radio apparatus. [2]

In 1902, the station Ushant TSF is established with a radio operator, receiver with coherer, and an arc transmitter. This station had a radio telegraphy range of 80 kilometers with a fleet of 14 ships at sea and with Brest.

In 1904 the Ouessant radio station with call sign FFU carried out radiotelegraphic connections on 600 meters with a fleet of passenger ships.

From 1905, Tissot made very thorough studies on the detection of radio signals. Following these tests, Tissot showed the possibility of using radio to transmit a time signal and to regulate the chronometers of the ships at sea. The Bureau des Longitudes started daily time signal service starting in May 1910.

In 1907, Tissot conceived, with F Pellin, a Crystal radio without tiresome adjustment to receive signals aboard ships.

In 1911, his technical expertise was required by a committee of French industrialists carried out by E Girardeau, during the series of lawsuits between the Marconi Company and French radio companies. With the occasion of these lawsuits, Tissot and Férrié in particular sought to show certain faults of patent 77777 of Marconi, but also the priority of experiments of certain French scientists, like Eugene Ducretet. Marconi won the lawsuit, but the decision of the court, which gave the Marconi the right to replace the French material by material made by Marconi, will never be applied in France.

During the First World War, Tissot made several stays at Bizerte, to equip ships with radio and to work on detection of underwater sound.

Commander Tissot died in October 1917 of pulmonary tuberculosis and influenza. [1] He was buried in the military square of the cemetery of Arcachon. [3] [4] He was an Officer of the Legion of Honor, and Officer of the State education.


Resonance of the antenna Dipolentstehung.gif
Résonance of the antenna

He wrote three detailed works:

He was also the author of many articles of popularization of radio in international scientific reviews, and gave very many conferences on the subject. Although not a member, he intervened regularly in front of the Academy of the Sciences. [5] He received several prizes and rewards of the Academy.

See also

Related Research Articles

Guglielmo Marconi Italian inventor and radio pioneer

Guglielmo Giovanni Maria Marconi, 1st Marquis of Marconi was an Italian inventor and electrical engineer, known for his pioneering work on long-distance radio transmission, development of Marconi's law, and a radio telegraph system. He is credited as the inventor of radio, and he shared the 1909 Nobel Prize in Physics with Karl Ferdinand Braun "in recognition of their contributions to the development of wireless telegraphy".

Karl Ferdinand Braun German inventor and physicist

Karl Ferdinand Braun was a German electrical engineer, inventor, physicist and Nobel laureate in physics. Braun contributed significantly to the development of radio and television technology: he shared the 1909 Nobel Prize in Physics with Guglielmo Marconi "for their contributions to the development of wireless telegraphy".

The early history of radio is the history of technology that produces and uses radio instruments that use radio waves. Within the timeline of radio, many people contributed theory and inventions in what became radio. Radio development began as "wireless telegraphy". Later radio history increasingly involves matters of broadcasting.


The coherer was a primitive form of radio signal detector used in the first radio receivers during the wireless telegraphy era at the beginning of the 20th century. Its use in radio was based on the 1890 findings of French physicist Édouard Branly and adapted by other physicists and inventors over the next ten years. The device consists of a tube or capsule containing two electrodes spaced a small distance apart with loose metal filings in the space between. When a radio frequency signal is applied to the device, the metal particles would cling together or "cohere", reducing the initial high resistance of the device, thereby allowing a much greater direct current to flow through it. In a receiver, the current would activate a bell, or a Morse paper tape recorder to make a record of the received signal. The metal filings in the coherer remained conductive after the signal (pulse) ended so that the coherer had to be "decohered" by tapping it with a clapper actuated by an electromagnet, each time a signal was received, thereby restoring the coherer to its original state. Coherers remained in widespread use until about 1907, when they were replaced by more sensitive electrolytic and crystal detectors.

Ushant Commune in Brittany, France

Ushant is a French island at the south-western end of the English Channel which marks the north-westernmost point of metropolitan France. It belongs to Brittany and is in the traditional region of Leon. Administratively, Ushant is a commune in the Finistère department. It is the only place in Brittany, except the name Brittany itself, with a separate name in English.

Radio receiver radio device for receiving radio waves and converting them to a useful signal

In radio communications, a radio receiver, also known as a receiver, a wireless or simply a radio, is an electronic device that receives radio waves and converts the information carried by them to a usable form. It is used with an antenna. The antenna intercepts radio waves and converts them to tiny alternating currents which are applied to the receiver, and the receiver extracts the desired information. The receiver uses electronic filters to separate the desired radio frequency signal from all the other signals picked up by the antenna, an electronic amplifier to increase the power of the signal for further processing, and finally recovers the desired information through demodulation.

Alexander Stepanovich Popov Russian physicist

Alexander Stepanovich Popov was a Russian physicist, who was one of the first persons to invent a radio receiving device.

Spark-gap transmitter

A spark-gap transmitter is an obsolete type of radio transmitter which generates radio waves by means of an electric spark. Spark-gap transmitters were the first type of radio transmitter, and were the main type used during the wireless telegraphy or "spark" era, the first three decades of radio, from 1887 to the end of World War I. German physicist Heinrich Hertz built the first experimental spark-gap transmitters in 1887, with which he proved the existence of radio waves and studied their properties.

Édouard Branly French physicist

Édouard Eugène Désiré Branly was a French inventor, physicist and professor at the Institut Catholique de Paris. He is primarily known for his early involvement in wireless telegraphy and his invention of the Branly coherer around 1890.

Crystal detector

A crystal detector is an obsolete electronic component used in some early 20th century radio receivers that consists of a piece of crystalline mineral which rectifies the alternating current radio signal and was employed as a detector (demodulator) to extract the audio modulation to produce the sound in the earphones. It was the first type of semiconductor diode, and one of the first semiconductor electronic devices. The most common type was the so-called cat whisker detector, which consisted of a piece of crystalline mineral, usually galena, with a fine wire touching its surface. The "asymmetric conduction" of electric current across electrical contacts between a crystal and a metal was discovered in 1874 by Karl Ferdinand Braun. Crystals were first used as radio wave detectors in 1894 by Jagadish Chandra Bose in his microwave experiments. Bose first patented a crystal detector in 1901. The crystal detector was developed into a practical radio component mainly by G. W. Pickard, who began research on detector materials in 1902 and found hundreds of substances that could be used in forming rectifying junctions. The physical principles by which they worked were not understood at the time they were used, but subsequent research into these primitive point contact semiconductor junctions in the 1930s and 1940s led to the development of modern semiconductor electronics.

Invention of radio aspect of history relating to the invention of radio

The invention of radio communication, although generally attributed to Guglielmo Marconi in the 1890s, spanned many decades, from theoretical underpinnings, through proof of the phenomenon's existence, development of technical means, to its final use in signalling.

Magnetic detector

The magnetic detector or Marconi magnetic detector, sometimes called the "Maggie", was an early radio wave detector used in some of the first radio receivers to receive Morse code messages during the wireless telegraphy era around the turn of the 20th century. Developed in 1902 by radio pioneer Guglielmo Marconi from a method invented in 1895 by New Zealand physicist Ernest Rutherford it was used in Marconi wireless stations until around 1912, when it was superseded by vacuum tubes. It was widely used on ships because of its reliability and insensitivity to vibration. A magnetic detector was part of the wireless apparatus in the radio room of the RMS Titanic which was used to summon help during its famous 15 April 1912 sinking.

Electrolytic detector

The electrolytic detector, or liquid barretter, was a type of detector (demodulator) used in early radio receivers. First used by Canadian radio researcher Reginald Fessenden in 1903, it was used until about 1913, after which it was superseded by crystal detectors and vacuum tube detectors such as the Fleming valve and Audion (triode). It was considered very sensitive and reliable compared to other detectors available at the time such as the magnetic detector and the coherer. It was one of the first rectifying detectors, able to receive AM (sound) transmissions. On December 24, 1906, US Naval ships with radio receivers equipped with Fessenden's electrolytic detectors received the first AM radio broadcast from Fessenden's Brant Rock, Massachusetts transmitter, consisting of a program of Christmas music.

The timeline of radio lists within the history of radio, the technology and events that produced instruments that use radio waves and activities that people undertook. Later, the history is dominated by programming and contents, which is closer to general history.

Arthur Moore was a Welsh wireless operator who heard a distress signal from RMS Titanic before news of the disaster arrived in the UK. Following the notoriety of this feat he went on to a successful career in sales, management and development of early radio.

Le Conquet radio

Le Conquet radio or Call sign FFU was a French maritime radio station located in the city of Le Conquet. The station was established in 1952, by the French Administration of France Télécom, as a result of the work by Call sign Ushant TSF, Call sign FFU.

Eugène Adrien Ducretet Scientific instrument maker

Eugène Adrien Ducretet was a French scientific instrument manufacturer, who performed some of the first experiments on wireless telegraphy in France. His father, Louis Joseph Ducretet, was a Savoy textiles merchant who moved to Paris. He never completed a formal education, leaving primary school at age 15. After several years apprenticed to Paris engineer Paul-Gustav Froment, Ducretet opened his own workshop in 1864 at 21 Rue des Ursulines where with a few employees he manufactured classical physics research, teaching and demonstration apparatus, such as galvanometers, Wimshurst machines, and Crookes tubes. Over time his reputation grew and he became instrument supplier to several large Paris educational and scientific institutions. He was awarded a gold medal for his quality instruments at the 1878 Paris Universal Exposition and from then on his firm was a regular presence at important international expositions, winning another gold at the 1881 International Electricity Exposition in Paris. He was made a Knight of the Legion of Honour in 1885.

Thomas Tommasina

Thomas Tommasina was an artist turned physicist who worked on atmospheric ionization and gravitational theories mainly after moving to Switzerland. An experimenter as well as a theoretician, he invented a radio-receiver-like device while studying ionospheric disturbances in the upper atmosphere and used it in long-range weather prediction.

Compagnie générale de la télégraphie sans fil

The Compagnie générale de la télégraphie sans fil was a French company founded in 1918 during a reorganization and expansion of the Société française radio-électrique (SFR), which became a subsidiary. The company developed technology for radio-telegraphy, radio program transmission, radar, television and other applications. It provided broadcasting and telegraphy services, and sold its equipment throughout the French colonial empire and in many other parts of the world. In 1968 CSF merged with the Thomson-Brandt to form Thomson-CSF.

Camille Gutton French physicist

Camille Gutton was a French physicist who specialized in radioelectricity. He was responsible for various theoretical and practical advances. He followed some false leads such as research into the hypothetical N rays, which did not in fact exist, and attempts to explain anomalies in laboratory measurements of radio waves in ionized gases, which he thought might be due to positive ions exerting a quasi-elastic force on electrons. His work on very high frequency radio waves helped with the development of radar. He received various honours for his work, and in 1947 was a candidate for the Nobel Prize in Physics.


  1. 1 2 3 "Officiers et anciens élèves" (in French). Retrieved 22 December 2018.
  2. McNicol, Donald Monroe (1946). Radio's conquest of space: the experimental rise in radio communication. Taylor & Francis. pp. 46, 113.
  3. "150 ans d'histoire au cimetière d'Arcachon" [150 years of history at the cemetery of Arcachon] (in French). 3 July 2014. Retrieved 22 December 2018.
  4. "Commandant Camille Tissot précurseur de la TSF et de la VHF marine" . Retrieved 22 December 2018.
  5. "Sur l'emploi de détecteurs sensibles d'oscillations électriques basés sur les phénomènes thermo-électriques" [On the use of sensitive detectors of electric oscillations based on the phenomena thermo-électriques]. Comptes Rendus de l'Académie des Sciences (in French). 147: 37. 6 July 1908. Retrieved 22 December 2018.

Further reading