Contrepoint. Autour d'Edouard Branly : trois propositions de révision. Journée Edouard Branly (Palais de la découverte, 9 octobre 1990)

SUMMARY. — The article summarizes the conclusions presented by the author at the end of the workshop devoted to Edouard Branly on the 9th of October 1990. It stresses three points. First, the complexity of the process of acceptation/ reappropriation of Hertz's works in France between 1888 and 1892. Secondly, the relationships then current between academics and the world of business, and the particular forms they took in France at the time. Finally, the fact that the historiography of Branly has always been caught up in France in the wider political debate between Right and Left, and that it is difficult for us to escape it when passing judgements on Branly 's « discovery ».