Félix Savart (30.06.1791-16.03.1841) — a French physicist, member of the Paris Academy of Sciences (1827). Born in Mézières. He graduated from the University of Strasbourg (1816), having received a medical education. He worked as a military surgeon. From 1816 he turned to physics, and from 1828 he was professor of experimental physics at the Collège de France.
His work was in acoustics, electromagnetism, optics and fluid mechanics. He invented an instrument for determining the frequency of sound (the Savart wheel), studied acoustic resonance, worked out the physical principles of the construction of stringed instruments, and proposed a design for the siren. He showed (1826) that sound propagates in liquids in the same way as in solids. He investigated the limits of audibility of sound: in 1830 he established the upper limit of audibility, 24000 Hz, and in 1831 the lower limit, 14-16 Hz. In 1820, together with J. Biot, he discovered experimentally the law of electrodynamics that determines the magnitude of the strength of the magnetic field produced by an electric current (the Biot — Savart law). For the study of polarised light he invented the quartz plate (the Savart plate) and the polariscope (1840).