Hippolyte Sebert

Personal

Vocation

French scientist and military general who carried out important research on ballistics and gun mechanics while director of the central laboratory of the naval artillery. With his friend Pierre-Henri Hugoniot he undertook research on the gas relaxes that accompany the detonation of a gun. Sebert entered the École Polytechnique in 1858, and graduated in 1860 as a naval artillery officer and was sent to Toulon. He then designed deformation measuring devices for the construction of guns. He was stationed in New Caledonia from 1866 to 1870 as the head of the Directorate of Marine Artillery, where he explored his interest in the mechanical properties of trees. He listed new botanical species to which he lent his name in various regions. During the war of 1870, he participated in the defence of Paris in the Second Army. Having become aide-de-camp to General Frébault, he took part with him in the battle of Champigny. He was appointed Commander of the Legion of Honour in 1888. He was promoted to Brigadier General in 1890. After his military retirement, he became consulting engineer and then managing director of the Société des Forges et Chantiers de la Méditerranée. He was elected a member of the Academy of Sciences (mechanical division) in 1897, succeeding Aimé-Henry Résal. In 1900 he chaired the French Association for the Advancement of Science and participated in the creation of SupOptique. He was also president of the French Society of Photography from 1901 to 1929, succeeding Louis-Alphonse Davanne, honorary president from 1926 to 1928, succeeding Louis Lumière, president of the French Society of Cinematography and promoter of the decimal bibliography. Hippolyte Sebert was also a great defender of Esperanto, presiding for a time over the French federation. The Esperanto-France Historical Library in Paris bears his name. In 1904, General Sebert was one of the players in the rehabilitation of Captain Alfred Dreyfus: he chaired the commission of four generals charged with studying the famous "slip", and concluded that it could not have been written by an artillery officer. Sebert died on 23 January 1930, aged 90. Link to Wikipedia biography (French)