François Daviet de Foncenex

François Daviet (1734-1799) was a military officer and mathematician from Savoy in the 18th century. The family name is sometimes also reported in original sources as Daviet de Foncenex, probably from the original village of the family.

François Daviet
Born1734
Thonon, Duchy of Savoy, today in France
Died1798
Casale, Piedmont, today in Italy
Alma materRoyal Military Academy of the Theory and Practice of Artillery
Known forDimensional analysis
Scientific career
FieldsMathematics
Politics
InstitutionsSardinian Army
InfluencesJoseph-Louis Lagrange

Life and work
First page of Sur les principes fondamentaux de la méchanique

Little is known about his life.[1] Born in Savoy, he studied in the Accademia di Torino under the professorship of Lagrange, two years younger than him. In 1759 he was named member of the Accademia delle Scienze di Torino. He was appointed lieutenant in the army of the Kingdom of Sardinia (the king of Sardinia was the ruler of the Duchy of Savoy) and after some promotions in the army, he was governor of Sassari (1790–91) and of Villefranche-sur-Mer. In 1792 he participated in the wars against French revolutionary army, and he was judged by treason and imprisoned for one year.

Daviet published in the years 1759-1760 two important papers in the journal of the Academy, Miscellanea Taurinensis:[2] the first one (1759) about imaginary numbers is titled Mémoire sur les logarithmes des quantités négatives[3] and has an extension titled Éclaircissements sur les quantités imaginaires; more important is the second one, titled Sur les principes fondamentaux de la méchanique (1761).[4] In four sections (law of inertia, composition of forces, equilibrium and law of the lever) he tried to establish the a priori fundamental laws of mechanics.[5]

In 1789 he published a paper: Récit d'une foudre ascendante éclatée sur la tour du fanal de Villefranche.

Finally, in 1799, the academy published an ensemble of many of his works, named Principes fondamentaux de la méchanique.

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References
  1. All the biographical data are from de Andrade Martins, page 402.
  2. Benvenuto, page 126.
  3. Dhombres, page 285.
  4. Benvenuto, pages 127-135.
  5. de Andrade Martins, pages 398-399.

Bibliography
  • de Andrade Martins, Roberto (2008). "A busca da Ciência a priori no final do Seculo XVIII e a origem da Análise dimensional". In Roberto de Andrade Martins; Lilian Al-Chueyr Pereira Martins; Cibelle Celestino Silva; Juliana Mesquita Hidalgo Ferreira (eds.). Filosofia E Historia Da Ciência No Cone Sul. 3 Encontro (in Portuguese). AFHIC. ISBN 978-1-4357-1633-9.
  • Benvenuto, Edoardo (1991). An Introduction to the History of Structural Mechanics: Part I: Statics and Resistance of Solids. Springer Verlag. ISBN 978-1-4612-7745-3.
  • Dhombres, Jean (2006). "Rhetorique et Algèbre au temps des Lumières. La question de la nature des quantités imaginaires selon Euker, Daviet de Foncenex et Laplace" (PDF). Rendiconti dil Seminario Matematico - Universitá di Torino (in French). 64 (Num. 3): 273–298.
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