Introduction

Lippmann was home-educated until relatively late, arriving at the École normale supérieure at an age five years older than his classmates. He showed early promise in doing scientific research, and knowing Lippmann's facility with languages (he spoke, read, and wrote French, English, and German), a member of the physics faculty, Pierre Auguste Bertin (1818–1884), asked him in 1868 to keep current with physics journals in Europe and to summarise new developments, in some cases critically, and publish them in the Annales de Chemie et de Physique, which was run by Bertin (Appell 1923).

In 1874, as he graduated from the Sorbonne, Gabriel Lippmann failed to take his examinations to receive his Aggregation, the licence to teach in the French public school system. His dedication to physics research and his general experimental abilities were, however, recognised, and the government awarded him a visiting research post to Germany, from which he was to eventually report back to the French government on the state of German science. Although Germany had defeated France in a war just two years before, he seems to have received a warm welcome. He worked in several physics laboratories and most likely reported back as required by the grant (though I have found no copy of this report), because he was awarded a second stay and ended up in Kirchhoff's laboratory in Heidelberg in 1874, and he received access to the lab – even in Kirchhoff's absence.