This is an I-Heart podcast.

Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production of IHeart Radio.

Hello and happy Friday. I'm Holly Fry.

And I'm Tracy V. Wilson.

We talked about Augustine Jean-Frenel this week.

We did. I'm glad you put this on your list because someone asked us at some point in the past for an episode on the Fresnel lens.

And then I was at, I feel like I was at the, one of the museums in Gloucester, Massachusetts, and saw one of the lenses. And I was like, that's so cool.

Someone asked us for an episode on this. Maybe I will put that on the list. And when I started looking into maybe doing an

episode, I was so focused on the lenses that I was like, I don't think I can make this work.

But you made it work. Barely, because, like, I'm on the struggle bus with the science of this one.

So hopefully, whoever wanted this episode, I don't recall that email,

is not like, you messed it all up.

You made a mess.

Fingers crossed.

So one of the things that is very cute and interesting about Franel is that when he started his career as a civil engineer,

and I think this story, it's from a biography I read on him, and it was when he was not fully completed.

He was like in his student but working the job phase. That he got posted to one of

these towns where he was working and like the expectation would be as someone is starting

their professional career for them to like seek out, you know, the town's leadership, society people,

etc. as like just a matter of course in how you would establish yourself in French society

at the time. But he apparently didn't do any of this. He instead got to be friends with one of the teachers in town and just wanted him to, like,

teach him about more science stuff.

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