Cros, Charles (1842-1888)

A French poet and inventor born in Fabrezan in 1842 and who died in Paris in 1888. He played an essential role in the development of photography and the telegraph system. As a poet he frequented both the Parnassian world – he also published poems in the Parnasse contemporain – and marginal circles, such as the Zutic circle and the Vilains-Bonshommes. He in addition developed a principle of the reproduction of sounds, the paleophone, which he presented to the Academy of Sciences. Unfortunately for him, at the same time, Edison was developing the phonograph. Charles Cros would thus never have the recognition afforded to his American rival.