But 1816 was the " Year Without a Summer " : crops failed ; hungry farming families lined the streets of Rennes ; the central government organized " charity workhouses " for the needy ; and in October , Fresnel was sent back to Ille-et-Vilaine to supervise charity workers in addition to his regular road crew . According to Arago , Fresnel 's letters from December 1816 reveal his consequent anxiety . To Arago he complained of being " tormented by the worries of surveillance , and the need to reprimand … " And to Mérimée he wrote : " I find nothing more tiresome than having to manage other men , and I admit that I have no idea what I 'm doing . " On 17 March 1817 , the Académie des Sciences announced that diffraction would be the topic for the biannual physics '' Grand Prix '' to be awarded in 1819 . The deadline for entries was set at 1 August 1818 to allow time for replication of experiments . Although the wording of the problem referred to rays and inflection and did not invite wave-based solutions , Arago and Ampère encouraged Fresnel to enter
Year Without a Summer
Year Without a Summer
Augustin-Jean Fresnel