Ampère Museum

• 1. Introduction

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  The Ampère Museum occupies the house in Poleymieux-au-Mont-d'Or where André-Marie Ampère spent part of his youth. About 15 km from Lyon by road, the building sits behind a garden with panoramic views of the surrounding countryside. A 17th-century family chapel stands on the grounds. Inside, one of the rooms holds an object no other institution possesses. It is the original apparatus from a physics experiment that Albert Einstein himself conducted. How did a quiet country house near Lyon become home to one of science's most singular objects? Who stepped in when the property was about to be sold, and why? And what connects a French physicist's theory of magnetism to an experiment Einstein ran more than a century later?

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• 2. An Unlikely Rescue

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  In 1928, the former Ampère family property was put up for sale. Two American brothers, Hernand and Sosthenes Behn, stepped forward to acquire it. Their mother was French; the Behns had co-founded ITT, the multinational company then developing its activities in France. On the advice of Paul Janet, and acting as patrons of the arts, they purchased the estate. Rather than keeping it for themselves, they donated it to the Société française des électriciens. Two years later, that body entrusted the property to the Society of Friends of André-Marie Ampère. The museum opened on the 1st of July 1931. The Society of Friends, which manages the museum, earned the Medal of Honor from the Academy of Lyon on the 18th of December 2018.

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• 3. What the Collection Holds

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  The museum's eleven rooms are divided between two distinct exhibition spaces. The first traces the history of electricity through interactive exhibits and original material related to Ampère. The second presents electricity's practical applications: lighting, telegraphy, medical uses, and more. Renewable energy production is covered both indoors and in a dedicated outdoor garden. Wind turbines and photovoltaic systems stand there for visitors to examine directly. Visitors can also operate working reproductions of fundamental electromagnetism experiments. The scientists represented include Hans Christian Ørsted and Michael Faraday, whose work is placed alongside Ampère's own. Games and additional explanations accompany the exhibits, allowing visitors to engage with the laws of electromagnetism through direct experience. One room gathers portraits, books, and manuscripts from the Ampère family. André-Marie Ampère (1775-1836) is presented there alongside his father Jean-Jacques (1733-1793) and his son Jean-Jacques Ampère (1800-1864). A separate room, "L'espace Ampère," seats 50 people and serves as a space for colloquiums and meetings. Audioguides in French and English accompany visitors throughout. The museum also offers one-day and half-day programs for students from elementary school through high school and beyond. Among the objects on display is one that connects directly to the question Ampère spent his career examining: what gives ordinary matter its magnetic properties.

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• 4. The Einstein-de Haas Experiment

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  Albert Einstein and Wander Johannes de Haas ran their experiment in 1915. They were testing Ampère's theory that magnetism within matter originates from electrical currents at the molecular level. Their results confirmed the theory, establishing the electron as the source of magnetism. The experiment holds a precise distinction in Einstein's career. It is the only fundamental research experiment he ever conceived, carried out, and published himself. The French Ministry of Culture designated the museum a "Maison des Illustres," meaning "Illustrious house," in 2013.

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• 5. International Recognition

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  In 2021, the European Physical Society awarded the museum its EPS Historic Site label, designating it a historical site of European physics. Two years later, in 2023, the IEEE granted the museum its Historic Milestone label. The IEEE is one of the largest professional organizations in the world. Two commemorative plaques were also unveiled that year to mark the bicentenary of Ampère's discoveries in electricity and magnetism. One went to the Collège de France in Paris; the other was installed at the museum. School programs reach students from elementary through post-secondary, connecting a new generation to a museum that has stood since 1931.

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