Henri Becquerel, whose real name was Antoine, was a French physicist. He was born on December 15, 1852 in Paris, France. He died on August 25, 1908 at Le Croisic. (Henri Becquerel Biography). His wife was Mlle Janin, who was the daughter of a civil engineer. His son’s name was Jean, who was also a physicist. The son was the four generation of scientists in the family. (Henri Becquerel – Biographical). He came from a family of scholars and scientists. His father’s name was Alexander Edmond Becquerel and he was a Professor of Applied Physics and he has also done research phosphorescence and solar radiation. His grandfather’s name was Antoine César and he was a Fellow of the Royal Society and also the inventor of an electrolytic method for extracting metals from their ores. (Henri Becquerel – Facts). …show more content…
Well, he discovered radioactivity. His earliest work had to do with the plane polarization of light, with the absorption of light by crystals and with the phenomenon of phosphorescence. He also at one point worked with the subject of terrestrial magnetism. His discovery of radioactivity in 1896 took over all of his other work. After talking to Henri Poincaré, Henri Becquerel started to think about if there was a connection between X-rays and naturally occurring phosphorescence. He inherited a supply of uranium salts, which phosphoresce on exposure to light. He placed the salts close to the photographic plate, which was covered by opaque paper, the plate was found to be fogged. This was found to be common to all uranium salts studied and it was concluded to be a property of the uranium atom. Henri later found that the rays that came out of the uranium caused gases to ionize and that they were different from X-rays because they could be deflected by electric or magnetic fields. (Henri Becquerel