Online Encyclopedia

Search over 40,000 articles from the original, classic Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition.

LEBEUF, JEAN (1687–176o)

Online Encyclopedia
Originally appearing in Volume V16, Page 351 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
» Make a correction to this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Spread the word: del.icio.us del.icio.us it!

See also:

LEBEUF, See also:JEAN (1687–176o) , See also:French historian, was See also:born on the 7th of See also:March 1687 at See also:Auxerre, where his See also:father, a councillor in the See also:parlement, was receveur See also:des consignations. He began his studies in his native See also:town, and continued them in See also:Paris at the See also:College Ste Bathe, He soon became known as one of the most cultivated minds of his See also:time. He made himself See also:master of practically every See also:branch of See also:medieval learning, and had a thorough knowledge of the See also:sources and the bibliography of his subject. His learning was not See also:drawn from books only; he was also an archaeologist, and frequently went on expeditions in See also:France, always on See also:foot, in the course of which he examined the monuments of See also:architecture and See also:sculpture, as well as the See also:libraries, and collected a number of notes and sketches. He was in See also:correspondence with all the most learned men of the See also:day. His correspondence with See also:President Bouhier was published in 1885 by Ernest See also:Petit; his other letters have been edited by the Societe des sciences historiques et naturelles de l' See also:Yonne (2 vols., 1866–1867). He also wrote numerous articles, and, after his See also:election as a member of the See also:Academic des See also:Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres (1740), a number of Memoires which appeared in the Recueil of this society. He died at Paris on the loth of See also:April 176o. His most important researches had Paris as their subject. He published first a collection of See also:Dissertations sur l'histoire civile et ecclesiastique de Paris (3 vols., 1739-1743), then an Histoire de la ville et de tout le See also:diocese de Paris (15 vols., 1745-1760), which is a mine of See also:information, mostly taken from the See also:original sources. In view of the advance made by scholarship in the 19th See also:century, it was found necessary to publish a second edition. The See also:work of reprinting it was undertaken by H.

Cocheris, but was interrupted (1863) before the completion of vol. iv. Adrien See also:

Augier resumed the work, giving Lebeuf's See also:text, though correcting the numerous typographical errors of the original edition (5 vols., 1883), and added a See also:sixth See also:volume containing an See also:analytical table of contents. Finally, Fernand Bournon completed the work by a volume of Rectifications et additions (189o), worthy to appear See also:side by side with the original work. The bibliography of Lebeuf's writings is, partly, in various See also:numbers of the Bibliotheque des ecrivains de Bourgogne (1716-1741). His See also:biography is given by See also:Lebeau in the Histoire de l'Academie royale des Inscriptions (See also:xxix., 372, published 1764), and by H. Cocheris, in the See also:preface to his edition. LE See also:BLANC, See also:NICOLAS (1742–1806), French chemist, was born at See also:Issoudun, See also:Indre, in 1742. He made See also:medicine his profession and in 1780 became surgeon to the See also:duke of See also:Orleans, but he also paid much See also:attention to See also:chemistry. About 1787 he was attracted to the urgent problem of manufacturing carbonate of soda from See also:ordinary See also:sea-See also:salt. The See also:suggestion made in 1789 by Jean See also:Claude de la Metherie (1743–1817), the editor of the See also:Journal de physique, that this might be done by calcining with See also:charcoal the sulphate of soda formed from salt by the See also:action of oil of See also:vitriol, did not succeed in practice because the product was almost entirely sulphide of soda, but it gave Le Blanc, as he himself acknowledged, a basis upon which to work. He soon made the See also:crucial See also:discovery—which proved the See also:foundation of the huge See also:industry of artificial See also:alkali manufacture—that the desired end was to be attained by adding a proportion of See also:chalk to the mixture of charcoal and sulphate of soda. Having had the soundness of this method tested by Jean Darcet (1725–1801), the See also:professor of chemistry at the College de France, the duke of Orleans in See also:June 1791 agreed to furnish a sum of 200,000 francs for the purpose of exploiting it.

In the following See also:

September Le Blanc was granted a patent for fifteen years, and shortly afterwards a factory was started at See also:Saint-See also:Denis, near Paris. But it had not See also:long been in operation when the Revolution led to the See also:confiscation of the duke's See also:property, including the factory, and about the same time the See also:Committee of Public Safety called upon all citizens who possessed soda-factories to disclose their situation and capacity and the nature of the methods employed. Le Blanc had no choice but to reveal the secrets of his See also:process, and he had the misfortune to see his factory dismantled and his See also:stocks of raw and finished materials sold. By way of See also:compensation for the loss of his rights, the See also:works were handed back to him in 1800, but all his efforts to obtain See also:money enough to restore them and resume manufacturing on a profitable See also:scale were vain, and, worn out with disappointment, he died by his own See also:hand at Saint-Denis on the 16th of See also:January 1806. Four years after his See also:death, See also:Michel Jean Jacques Dize (1764-1852), who had been preparateur to Darcet at the time he examined the process and who was subsequently associated with Le Blanc in its exploitation, published in the Journal de physique a See also:paper claiming that it was he himself who had first suggested the addition of chalk; but a committee of the French See also:Academy, which reported fully on the question in 1856, came to the conclusion that the merit was entirely Le Blanc's (See also:Corn. rend., 1856, p. 553). LE BLANC, a town of central France, See also:capital of an See also:arrondissement, in the See also:department of Indre, 44 M. W.S.W. of See also:Chateauroux on the Orleans railway between Argenton and See also:Poitiers. Pop. (1906) 4719. The See also:Creuse divides it into a See also:lower and an upper town. The See also:church of St Genitour See also:dates from the 12th, 13th and 15th centuries, and there is an old See also:castle restored in See also:modern times.

It is the seat of a subprefect, and has a tribunal of first instance and a communal college. See also:

Wool-See also:spinning, and the manufacture of See also:linen goods and edge-tools are among the See also:industries. There is See also:trade in horses and in the agricultural and other products of the surrounding region. Le Blanc, which is identified with the See also:Roman Oblincum, was in the See also:middle ages a lordship belonging to the See also:house of Naillac and a frontier fortress of the See also:province of See also:Berry.

End of Article: LEBEUF, JEAN (1687–176o)

Additional information and Comments

There are no comments yet for this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Please link directly to this article:
Highlight the code below, right click, and select "copy." Then paste it into your website, email, or other HTML.
Site content, images, and layout Copyright © 2006 - Net Industries, worldwide.
Do not copy, download, transfer, or otherwise replicate the site content in whole or in part.

Links to articles and home page are always encouraged.

[back]
LEBEUF, EDMOND (1809-1888) 		[next]
LEBRIJA, or LEBRIXA

Site © 2006 - Net Industries