Mont Blanc massif led to calls to limit access to the most popular summits and for the mountains to be treated with greater respect. The Mont Blanc massif has provided numerous opportunities for academic research, dating back to the very first ascent of Mont Blanc in 1786 during which Michel Paccard carried scientific equipment to confirm it as the highest summit. In 1820, an ill-fated expedition led by Dr Hamel included pigeons intended for release at varying altitudes to measure the impact of reduced air density on their ability to fly. In 1890, Joseph Vallot built a small meteorological observatory at approximately between
Jacques Gabriel Jacques Gabriel Jacques Gabriel (1667–1742) was a French architect, the father of the famous Ange-Jacques Gabriel. His mother was a cousin of Jules Hardouin-Mansart and his father, another Jacques Gabriel was a masonry contractor for the "Bâtiments du Roi", the French royal works, and the designer of the Château de Choisy for the king's cousin, La Grande Mademoiselle. The younger Jacques Gabriel was appointed one of the "controlleurs généraux" at the "Bâtiments du Roi" in 1688, at the age of twenty-one. Two years later he was sent to accompany Robert de Cotte on an eighteen-month sojourn in Italy, sharpening his