René Antoine Ferchault de Réaumur
Réaumur | |
---|---|
Académie des Sciences; royal and military Order of Saint Louis; Fellow of the Royal Society; Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences | |
Scientific career | |
Fields | Entomology |
Patrons | Pierre Varignon |
René Antoine Ferchault de Réaumur (French:
Life
Réaumur was born in a prominent La Rochelle family and educated in Paris. He learned philosophy in the
At first, his attention was occupied by mathematical studies, especially in
He loved retirement and lived at his country residences, including his chateau La Bermondière,[2] Saint-Julien-du-Terroux, Maine, where he had a serious fall from a horse, which led to his death. He bequeathed his manuscripts, which filled 138 portfolios, and his natural history collections to the Académie des Sciences.
Réaumur's scientific papers deal with many branches of science. His first, in 1708, was on a general problem in geometry. His last, in 1756, on the forms of birds' nests. He proved experimentally the fact that the strength of a rope is more than the sum of the strengths of its separate strands. He examined and reported on the auriferous (gold-bearing) rivers, the turquoise mines, the forests and the fossil beds of France. He devised the method of tinning iron that is still employed, and investigated the differences between iron and steel, correctly showing that the amount of carbon is greatest in cast iron, less in steel, and least in wrought iron. His book on this subject (1722) was translated into English and German.
He was noted for a
Réaumur wrote much on natural history. Early in life he described the locomotor system of the
In 1710 he wrote a paper on the possibility of spiders being used to produce silk, which was so celebrated at the time that the Kangxi Emperor of China had it translated into Chinese. His observations of wasps making paper from wood fibres have led some to credit him with this change in paper-making techniques. It was over a century before wood pulp was used on any industrial scale in paper making.[5]
He studied the relationship between the growth of insects and temperature. He also computed the rate of growth of insect populations and noted that there must be
He also studied botanical and agricultural matters, and devised processes for preserving birds and eggs. He elaborated a system of artificial
He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in November 1738[7] by virtue of the fact that:
His Name hath been known for many years among the Learned by Several Curious disertations published in the Memoirs of the Royal Academy of Sciences at Paris & in particular by a very Learned and usefull book wrote in French entitled 'The Art of Converting Forged Iron into Steel' and 'the Art of Soft'ning Cast Iron' printed at Paris 1722 4to and lately by his 'Curious Memoires relating to the History of Insects' at Paris in 4to three Volumes of which work have been Laid before the Royal Society.
He was elected a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in 1748.
He is commemorated in numerous place names including the rue Réaumur and the Réaumur - Sébastopol metro station in Paris and the Place Réaumur, Le Havre.
Selected works
- Réaumur, R.-A. F. de. 1722. L'art de convertir le fer forgé en acier, et l'art d'adoucir le fer fondu, ou de faire des ouvrages de fer fondu aussi finis que le fer forgé. Paris, France.
- Réaumur, R.-A. F. de. 1734–1742. Mémoires pour servir à l'histoire des insectes. Six volumes. Académie Royale des Sciences, Paris, France.
- Réaumur, R.-A. F. de. 1749. Art de faire éclorre et d'élever en tout saison des oiseaux Domestiques de toutes espèces. Two volumes. Imprimerie royale, Paris, France.
- Réaumur, R.-A. F. de. 1750. The art of hatching and bringing up domestic fowls. London, UK.
- Réaumur, R.-A. F. de. 1800. Short history of bees I. The natural history of bees . . . Printed for Vernor and Hood in the Poultry, by J. Cundee, London, UK.
- Réaumur, R.-A. F. de. 1926. The natural history of ants, from an unpublished manuscript. W. M. Wheeler, editor and translator. [Includes French text.] Knopf, New York City, USA. Reprinted 1977. Arno Press, New York City, USA.
- Réaumur, R.-A. F. de. 1939. Morceaux choisis. Jean Torlais, editor. Gallimard, Paris, France.
- Réaumur, R.-A. F. de. 1955. Histoire des scarabées. M. Caullery, introduction. Volume 11 of Encyclopédie Entomologique. Paul Lechevalier, Paris, France.
- Réaumur, R.-A. F. de. 1956. Memoirs on steel and iron. A. G. Sisco, translator. C. S. Smith, introduction and notes. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois, USA.
Publications
- Mémoires pour servir a l'histoire des insectes (in French). Vol. 1. Paris: Imprimerie Royale. 1734.
- Mémoires pour servir a l'histoire des insectes (in French). Vol. 2. Paris: Imprimerie Royale. 1736.
- Mémoires pour servir a l'histoire des insectes (in French). Vol. 3. Paris: Imprimerie Royale. 1737.
- Mémoires pour servir a l'histoire des insectes (in French). Vol. 4. Paris: Imprimerie Royale. 1738.
- Mémoires pour servir a l'histoire des insectes (in French). Vol. 5. Paris: Imprimerie Royale. 1740.
Notes
- ^ a b Egerton, F. N. 2006. A History of the Ecological Sciences, Part 21: Réaumur and His History of Insects. Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America 87(3):212–224.
- ^ La Bermondière.
- ^ 100 °C * 0.00108 К−1 / 0.001 °Ré−1
- ^ Wheeler, W. M. 1926. Introduction, annotations and bibliography. In R.-A.F.de Réaumur 1926. Knopf, New York City, USA.
- ^ "No. 1052: Of Wasps Making Paper". www.uh.edu.
- ^ "On Coral and Coral Reefs (1871)". aleph0.clarku.edu.
- ^ "Library and Archive Catalogue". The Royal Society. Archived from the original on 15 April 2013. Retrieved 4 October 2010.
References
- Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). . Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
External links
- Works by or about René Antoine Ferchault de Réaumur at Internet Archive
- Digitalies text of Mémoires pour servir a l'histoire des insectes
- Website of the Manoir Des Sciences at Reaumur
- Gaedike, R.; Groll, E. K. & Taeger, A. 2012: Bibliography of the entomological literature from the beginning until 1863 : online database – version 1.0 – Senckenberg Deutsches Entomologisches Institut.