Online Encyclopedia

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

MONGE, GASPARD (1746-1818)

Online Encyclopedia
Originally appearing in Volume V18, Page 710 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:

MONGE, GASPARD (1746-1818) , See also:French mathematician, the inventor of descriptive See also:geometry, was See also:born at See also:Beaune on the loth of May 1746. He was educated first at the See also:college of the Oratorians at Beaune, and then in their college at See also:Lyons—where, at sixteen, the See also:year after he had been Iearning physics, he was made a teacher of it. Returning to Beaune for a vacation, he made, on a large See also:scale, a See also:plan of the See also:town, inventing the methods of observation and constructing the necessary See also:instruments; the plan was presented to the town, and preserved in their library. An officer of See also:engineers seeing it wrote to recommend Monge to the commandant of the military school at See also:Mezieres, and he was received as a draftsman and See also:pupil in the See also:practical school attached to that institution; the school itself was of too aristocratic a See also:character to allow of his See also:admission to it. His See also:manual skill was duly appreciated: " I was a thousand times tempted," he said See also:long afterwards, " to See also:tear up my drawings in disgust at the esteem in which they were held, as if I had been See also:good for nothing better." An opportunity, however, presented itself: being required to See also:work out from data supplied to him the " defilement " of a proposed fortress (an operation then only performed by a long arithmetical See also:process), Monge, substituting for this a geometrical method, obtained the result so quickly that the commandant at first refused to receive it—the See also:time necessary for the work had not been taken; but upon examination the value of the See also:discovery was recognized, and the method was adopted. And Monge, continuing his researches, arrived at that See also:general method of the application of geometry to the arts of construction which is now called descriptive geometry (see GEOMETRY, DESCRIPTIVE). But such was the See also:system in See also:France before the Revolution that the See also:officers instructed in the method were strictly forbidden to communicate it even to those engaged in other branches of the public service; and it was not until many years afterwards that an See also:account of it was published. In 1768 Monge became See also:professor of See also:mathematics, and in 1771 professor of physics, at Mezieres; in 1778 he married Mme Horbon, a See also:young widow whom he had previously defended in a very spirited manner from an unfounded See also:charge; in 178o he was appointed to a See also:chair of See also:hydraulics at the See also:Lyceum in See also:Paris (held by him together with his appointments at Mezieres), and was received as a member of the See also:Academic; his intimate friend-See also:ship with C. L. Berthollet began at this time. In 1783, quitting Mezieres, he was, on the See also:death of E. Bezout, appointed examiner of See also:naval candidates.

Although pressed by the See also:

minister to prepare for them a See also:complete course of mathematics, he declined to do so, on the ground that it would deprive Mme Bezout of her only income, from the See also:sale of the See also:works of her See also:late' See also:husband; he wrote, however (1786), his Traits elementaire de la statique. Monge contributed (1770-1790) to the See also:Memoirs of the See also:Academy of See also:Turin, the Memoires See also:des savantes strangers of the Academy of Paris, the Memoires of the same Academy, and the Annales de chimie, various mathematical and See also:physical papers. Among these may be noticed the memoir " Sur la theorie des deblais et des remblais " (Hem. de l'acad. de Paris, 1781), which, while giving a remarkably elegant investigation in regard to the problem of See also:earth-work referred to in the See also:title, establishes in connexion with it his See also:capital discovery of the curves of curvature of a See also:surface. Leonhard See also:Euler, in his See also:paper on curvature in the See also:Berlin Memoirs for s76o, had considered, not the normals of the surface, but the normals of the See also:plane sections through a particular normal, so that the question of the intersection of successive normals of the surface had never presented itself to him. Monge's memoir just referred to gives the See also:ordinary See also:differential See also:equation of the curves of curvature, and establishes the general theory in a very satisfactory manner; but the application to the interesting particular See also:case of the See also:ellipsoid was first made by him in a later paper in 1795. A memoir in the See also:volume for 1783 relates to the See also:production of See also:water by the See also:combustion of See also:hydrogen; but Monge's results had been anticipated by See also:Henry See also:Cavendish. In 1792, on the creation by the Legislative See also:Assembly of an executive See also:council, Monge accepted the See also:office of minister of the marine, but retained it only until See also:April 1793. When the See also:Committee of Public Safety made an See also:appeal to the savants to assist in producing the materiel required for the See also:defence of the See also:republic, he applied himself wholly to these operations, and distinguished himself by his indefatigable activity therein; he wrote at this time his Description de fart de fabriquer See also:les canons, and his Avis aux ouvriers en fer sur la fabrication de l'acier. He took a very active See also:part in the See also:measures for the See also:establishment of the normal school (which existed only during the first four months of the year 1795), and of the school for public works, afterwards the See also:polytechnic school, and was at each of them professor for descriptive geometry; his methods in that See also:science were first published in the See also:form in which the shorthand writers took down his lessons given at the normal school in 1795, and again in 1798-1799. In 1796 Monge was sent into See also:Italy with C. L. Berthollet and some artists to receive the pictures and statues levied from several See also:Italian towns, and made there the acquaintance of General See also:Bonaparte.

Two years afterwards he was sent to See also:

Rome on a See also:political See also:mission, which terminated in the establishment, under A. See also:Massena, of the See also:short-lived See also:Roman republic; and he thence joined the expedition to See also:Egypt, taking part with his friend Berthollet as well in various operations of the See also:war as in the scientific labours of the See also:Egyptian See also:Institute of Sciences and Arts; they accompanied Bonaparte to See also:Syria, and returned with him in 1798 to France. Monge was appointed See also:president of the Egyptian See also:commission, and he resumed his connexion with the polytechnic school. His later mathematical papers are published (1794-x816) in the See also:Journal and the Correspondance of the polytechnic school. On the formation of the See also:Senate he was appointed a member of that See also:body, with an ample See also:provision and the title of See also:count of See also:Pelusium; but on the fall of See also:Napoleon he was deprived of all his honours, and even excluded from the See also:list of members of the reconstituted Institute. He died at Paris on the 28th of See also:July 1818. For further See also:information see B. See also:Brisson, See also:Notice historique sur Gaspard Monge; See also:Dupin, Essai historique sur les services et les travaux scientifiques de Gaspard Monge (Paris, 1819), which contains (pp. 162—166) a list of Monge's memoirs and works; and the See also:biography by F. See also:Arago (euvres, t. 1854). Monge's various mathematical papers are to a considerable extent reproduced in the Application de l'anatyse a la geomeirie (4thed., last revised by the author, Paris, 1819) ; the pure See also:text of this is reproduced in the 5th ed.

(revue, corrigee et annotee See also:

par M. Liouville) (Paris, 1850), which contains also See also:Gauss's Memoir, " Disquisitiones generales circa superficies curvas," and some valuable notes by the editor. The other See also:principal See also:separate works are Trailee elementaire de la statique, 8' edition, conformee a la precedente, par M. See also:Hachette, et suivie dune See also:note &'c., par M. See also:Cauchy (Paris, 1846) ; and the Geometric descriptive (originating, as mentioned above, in the lessons given at the normal school). The 4th edition, published shortly after the author's death, seems to have been substantially the same as the 7th (Geometric descriptive par G. Monge, suivie d'une theorie des ombres et- de la See also:perspective, extraite des apiers de l'auteur, par M. Brisson (Paris, 1847). (A.

End of Article: MONGE, GASPARD (1746-1818)

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]
MONG PAN (the Burmese Maingpan) 		[next]
MONGHYR

Site © 2006 - Net Industries