Monge
Full Name: Gaspard Monge, Comte de Péluse
Achievements: Invented descriptive geometry
Born: May 10, 1746; Beaune, France
Died: July 28, 1818; Paris, France (Aged 72)
Field & Discipline: Mathematics; Geometry
Language: French
Father: Jacques Monge
Mother: Unknown
Siblings: 2 brothers
Spouse: Catherine Houbon
Children: 3 daughters
Education: College of the Oratorians, Beaune; College of the Oratorians, Lyon; Ecole Militaire, Mezieres
Major Work:
“Descriptive Geometry” (1799)
“Analysis Applied to Geometry” (1799)
Life & Times:
When Monge was he sixteen made a large map of Beaune, using surveying instruments which he made himself. Monge later met a military officer who on the strength of his map, got him into the Mezieres military school.
As a student draughtsman, Monge had to design a fortified position in such a way that no gun emplacement of it was exposed to direct enemy fire. This involved very laborious arithmetical calculations. Monge had substituted geometry for arithmetic, and in doing so founded descriptive geometry, a process which became the basis for all mechanical drawing and mechanical graphics. It was a method for representing three-dimensional figures in one plane.
Monge was immediately promoted to a minor teaching post so that the military officers in training would become familiar with his method. His geometrical process transformed mechanical design and military engineering. He had to take an oath of secrecy and his process remained classified for fifteen years.
He became professor mathematics at Mezieres in 1768 when he was twenty-two and three years later also took on the job of professor of physics. During the 1770’s he visited Paris and got to know other scientists such as the chemist [collaborated with] Lavoisier* with whom he collaborated on various phenomena including expansion, solution and the effects of a vacuum.
Monge had also begun a correspondence with [corresponded with] d’Alembert* and the [corresponded with] Condorcet* who had established the study of hydraulics in Paris and as a result, in 1780 he began teaching in Paris as well as Mezieres.
He was elected an associate of the Academy of Science in the same year and in 1781 he published a paper “On the Theory of Excavation and Emplacements” in which he applied calculus to the investigation of the curvature of surfaces. In his general theory of curvature, Monge provided a basis for the work of [set scene for] Gauss* who in turn inspired [set scene for] Riemann*.
In 1783 Monge left Mezieres and became examiner of candidates for commissions in the navy. Over the next six years, Monge made himself very unpopular with numerous aristocrats by refusing to accept their incompetent offspring, and the caliber of French naval officers improved.
Like many of the intelligentsia, Monge approved of the French Revolution. He was appointed to the Committee of Weights and Measures that established the [developed] metric system* in 1791, and in 1792 he reluctantly accepted the post of Minister for the Navy and the Colonies, but was allowed to leave the ministry in April of that year when there was national emergency over the supply of munitions.
France’s enemies had mounted a blockade and there was no hope of importing materials such as copper, tin, saltpetre and steel which were urgently needed. A massive war effort to get enough raw materials together for improved weapons was mounted and Monge joined this together with the chemist [worked with] Berthollet*, and other scientists and inventors such as [worked with] Conte* and [worked with] Guyton de Morveau*. While Berthollet invented improved methods for refining, and simplified the manufacture of gunpowder, Monge sent out bulletins all over France telling people what to do. Virtually the whole country became a munitions factory, with local chemists directing villagers to dismantle church bells and clocks for tin and copper. Monge’s bulletin “The Art of Manufacturing Cannon” became the bible of the new improvised munitions factories.
From 1794-95 he taught at the Ecole Normale in Paris and for the first time was allowed to explain his method of descriptive geometry. He was one of the principal founders of the Ecole Polytechniqe, originally set up as a training school for engineers in 1795. Monge taught descriptive and analytical geometry. Among his pupils was [taught] Courtois* who later discovered iodine.
In 1796 Monge received a letter from Napoleon* who was then engaged in the invasion of Italy. The letter was the start of a close friendship between the two men and at Napoleon’s direction Monge, together with Berthollet, was sent by the French government to Italy, to choose works of art for Napoleon’s war chest.
In 1798, Monge and the mathematician [worked with] Fourier* were among the scientists who accompanied [went to Egypt with] Napoleon* to Egypt. After Napoleon’s defeat in 1814, Monge continued to support him, but when the Bourbon royal family came to power in 1814, Monge was stripped of his honours and expelled from the Academy.
Extra Connections: Developed a semaphore with[developed semaphore with] Chappe*.
He knew [knew] Venturi*
Assessment: Monge’s invention of descriptive geometry revolutionized mechanical design and engineering.
Oneliner: Gaspard Monge, inventor of descriptive geometry
Bibliography:
- Bell, ET, Men of Mathematics, Vol. I, Penguin Books, Middlesex, England, 1965.