Charles Fabry

Family background

The Fabry family originates from Bourg-Saint-Andéol in the Ardèche department. It was in this town that François-Antoine Fabry (1749–1823), a spinner in Bourg-Saint-Andéol and Charles’s great-grandfather, prepared for the entrance exam to the École Polytechnique at the end of the 18th century. He was admitted and became the first in a long line of polytechnicians. His son Auguste (1796–1877) was also admitted and received lessons from the famous physicist André-Marie Ampère.

Auguste’s son, also named Charles, married Marie Estrangin, from a prominent Marseille family close to the playwright Edmond Rostand. Together, they had five children: Auguste, Eugène Fabry, Louis Fabry, Charles, and Pierre, several of whom had distinguished careers. Eugène, born in 1856, was a polytechnician and Doctor of Mathematical Sciences, a tobacco engineer, an associate professor at the lycées of Tarbes, Carcassonne, and Tours, a lecturer at the Faculties of Sciences in Rennes and Nancy, a professor in Montpellier and Marseille, and an examiner at the École Polytechnique. Louis, born in 1862, also a polytechnician with degrees in mathematics and physics, was an astronomer at the Paris Observatory (1884–1887), in Nice (1887–1890), and then in Marseille until his retirement in 1924. Auguste, born in 1855, earned a doctorate in law and became a lawyer in Marseille before joining the judiciary. He served as deputy public prosecutor and examining magistrate in Tunis, vice-president, prosecutor, president, and attorney general in Caen, finally becoming first president and then counselor at the French Court of Cassation.

Early years and education

Marie Paul Auguste Charles Fabry was born in Marseille on 11 June 1867. From a young age, he showed a keen interest in science. He excelled at the Lycée de Marseille, now known as Lycée Thiers. At 18, he entered the École Polytechnique in Paris in 1885, ranked 17th, and graduated in 1887, ranked 23rd, but chose to resign. He then returned to Marseille to study at the Faculty of Sciences, where he prepared for the physics agrégation, placing third in 1889, behind Henri Abraham (2nd) and Bernard Brunhes (1st).