FIVE
S8
FIZEAU
assembled 4 Sept., 1774, and of which he was a mem-
ber. His election as one of the Provincial Deputies in
July, 1774, is the first instance of a Catholic being
named for a public office in Pennsylvania. At the
breaking-out of hostilities he organized a company of
militia and took part in the Trenton campaign in New
Jersey. After this service in the field he returned to
Philadelphia and was active with other merchants
in providing for the needs of the army.
On 12 Nov., 1782, he was elected a member of the Congress of the old Confederacy and was among the leaders in its deliberations. He was a member of the Convention that met in Philadelphia 25 May, 17S7, and framed the Constitution of the United States. Daniel Carroll of Maryland being the only other Cath- olic member. In this convention Fitz-Simons voted against universal suffrage and in favour of limiting it to free-holders. Under this constitution he was elected a member of the first Congress of the United States and in it served on the Committee on Ways and Means. In politics he was an ardent Federalist. He was re-elected to the second and the third Congresses, but was defeated for the fourth, in 1794, and this closed his political career. Madison wrote to Jeffer- son, on 16 Nov., 1794, that the failure of Fitz-Simons to be selected was a "stinging blow for the aristo- cracy". The records of Congress show that he was among the very first, if not the first, to advocate the fundamental principles of a protective tariff system to help American industries. When Washington was inaugurated the first president, Fitz-Simons was one of the four laymen, Charles and Daniel Carroll of Mary- land, and Dominic Lynch of New York being the others, to sign the adtlress of congratulation presented to him by the Catholics of the country. He was among the founders of Georgetown College, and was considered during his long life one of the most enlight- ened merchants in the United States. On all ques- tions connected with commerce and finance his advice was always sought and regarded with respect in the operations that laid the foundation of the commercial prosperity of the new republic.
Ghiffin, Thomas Fil^-Simonx (Philadelphia. 1887); Am. Calh. Hist. Researchrs (Philadelphia, 1908). 162-63; Shea, Life and Times of Most Rev, John Carroll (New York, ISSS).
Thomas F. Meehan.
Five Mile Act. See Nonconformists.
Fixlmillner, Placidus, astronomer, b. at Achleu- then near Kremsmiinster, Austria, in 1721; d. at Kremsniiinster, 27 August, 1791. He received his early education at Salzburg, where he displayed a talent for mathematics. He joined the Benedictines at the age of sixteen and became distinguished for his broad scholarship. In 1756 he published a small treatise entitled "Reipublicie sacrje origines diviniE". He intended to continue this work but the transit of Venus in 1761 again aroused his interest in mathe- matics. Though already forty years of age he resumed his old studies with ardour, and an opportunity soon presented itself for work in astronomy. He was ap- pointed director of the observatory of Kremsmiinster, which had been established by his uncle in 1748 while abbot. His first task was to improve the equipment and h.ave new instruments constructed, and as soon as possible he determined the latitude and longitude of the observatory. He continued in charge of the observatory until his death and by his industry ac- cumulated a number of observations of great variety and value. He did not, however, devote all his time to astronomy. For many years he was in charge of the college connected with the abbey and at the same time acted as professor of canon law. As such he was honoured with the dignity of notary Apostolic of "the Roman Court. Fixlmillner is Ijest known for his work in astronomy. He was one of the first to compute the orbit of Uraims after its discovery by Herschel. His numerous observations of Mercury were of much ser-
vice to Lalande in constructing tables of that planet.
Besides the treatise already mentioned he was the
author of "Meridianus speculse astronomicEe cremi-
fanensis" (Steyer, 1765), which treats of his observa-
tions in connexion with the latitude and longitude of
his observatory, and "Decennium astronomicum"
(Steyer, 1776). After his death his successor P. Derf-
flinger published the "Acta cremifanensia a Placido
Fixlmillner" (Steyer, 1791), which contain his obser-
vations from 1776 to 1791.
ScHLicHTKGROLL, Nekrolofj dcT DcutschcH (Gotha, 1791- 1S06), supplement; Zach, Ephemfridcs gcographiqucs (1799); Nicollet in Biog. Universelle, XIV.
H. M. Brock.
Fizeau, Armand-Hippglyte-Louis, physicist, b. at Paris, 23 Sept., 1819; d. at Nanteui!, Seine-et- Marne, 18 Sept., 1896. His father, a distinguished physician and professor of medicine in Paris during the Restoration, left him an independent fortune, so that he was able to devote himself to scientific re- search. He attended Stanislas College and then be- gan to study medicine, but had to abandon it on ac- count of ill-health and travelled for awhile. Then followed Arago's lessons at the Observatory, Re- gnault on optics at the College of France, and a thor- ough study of his brother's notebooks of the courses at the Ecole Polytechnique. In 1839 he became inter- ested in the new photography and succeeded in getting permanent pictures by the daguerreotype. Foucault came to consult him about this work and became as- sociated with him in their epoch-making experiments in optics, showing the identity of radiant heat and light, the regularity of tlie light vibrations, and the validity of the undulatory theory. Just as they were ready to develop the expcrimentum a-ucis (see Fou- cault) overthrowing the emission theory, they parted company and worked independently.
Fizeau was the first to determine experimentally the velocity of light (1849). He used a rotating cog- wheel and a fixed mirror several miles distant; light passed between two teeth of the wheel to the distant mirror and then returned. If the wheel turned fast enough to obscure the reflection, then the reflected beam struck a cog. The time it took the wheel to move the width of one tooth was then equal to the time it took the light to travel twice the distance be- tween the wheel and the mirror. He also experi- mented successfully to show that the ether is carried along by moving substances, since light travels faster through a stream of water in the direction of its mo- tion than in the opposite direction. In his measure- ments of vanishingly small distances, such as the ex- pansion of crystals, he made use of the extremely small and very regular wave-length of light. His addition of a condenser in the primary circuit of the induction coil increased the effectiveness of this device consid- erably. On the recommendation of the Academy of Sciences he was awarded the Grand Prix ( 10,000 francs) of the Institute in 1856. He was elected a mem- ber of the Academy of Sciences in 18G0, and a member of the Bureau des Longitudes in 1878. He received the decoration of the Legion of llonnurin 1849 and became officer in 1875. In 1866 the Hnjal Soci- ety of London awarded him the Rvuuford Medal. Cornu says of him : " He was a practical and convinced Christian and did not hide that fact." In the presi- dential address before the academy (Comptes Rendus, 1879), Fizeau calls attention to "the dignity ;iiid inde- pendence of natural science as well as to its limits of action, preventing it from interfering in philosophic or social questions, nml imt )irniii(ting it to jnit it.self in opposition to the imMc chh. (ions of the heart nor to the pure voice of <'(iiis(iciicc". Most of his published works appeared in the "Comptes Rendus "and in the "Aniiales de physique et de chimie". A few of the tides are: "Sur la dagucrrfotypie " ; "Sur I'inter- fdrence entre deux rayons dans le cas de grandcs dif-
