Charles-Marie-Thérèse-Léon de Tinseau d'Amondans de Gennes (1748-1822) was a

military engineer Military engineering is loosely defined as the art, science, and practice of designing and building military works and maintaining lines of military transport and military communications. Military engineers are also responsible for logistics b ...

and

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, structure, space, models, and change. History On ...

from France in the 18th century.

Life and work

Charles Tinseau was the sixth son (from seven) of Marie-Nicolas Tinseau, ''seigneur'' de Gennes, and Jeanne Petramand de Velay, a noble family in the

Franche-Comté Franche-Comté (, ; ; Frainc-Comtou: ''Fraintche-Comtè''; frp, Franche-Comtât; also german: Freigrafschaft; es, Franco Condado; all ) is a cultural and historical region of eastern France. It is composed of the modern departments of Doubs, ...

. He entered in the ''École du Génie'' at Mézières (the Military School of Artillery of France) in 1769 and he graduated in 1771.

Gaspard Monge Gaspard Monge, Comte de Péluse (9 May 1746 – 28 July 1818) was a French mathematician, commonly presented as the inventor of descriptive geometry, (the mathematical basis of) technical drawing, and the father of differential geometry. Durin ...

, his professor of mathematics, interested him in mathematics., Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography. However, he followed his military career achieving the rank of General Brigadier. In the school he knew the future naturalist

Justin Girod-Chantrans Justin Girod-Chantrans (26 September 1750, Besançon – 1 April 1841, Besançon) was a French naturalist known for his pioneering research in the field of phycology. Following studies with the Jesuits, he entered the ''Ecole du Génie mili ...

, born at Besançon like himself. In 1772 he presented two papers in the Acadèmie Royal des Sciences (published 1774). The more influential of the two papers was ''Sur quelques propriétés des solides renfermés par des surfaces composées des lignes droites'', in which he demonstrates what is today known as

De Gua's theorem __NOTOC__ In mathematics, De Gua's theorem is a three-dimensional analog of the Pythagorean theorem named after Jean Paul de Gua de Malves. It states that if a tetrahedron has a right-angle corner (like the corner of a cube), then the square of th ...

. The polemics with

Jean Paul de Gua de Malves Jean Paul de Gua de Malves (1713, Malves-en-Minervois (Aude) – June 2, 1785, Paris) was a French mathematician who published in 1740 a work on analytical geometry in which he applied it, without the aid of differential calculus, to find the tange ...

was granted because de Gua was published an other demonstration thirty years before. Apparently not de Gua, neither Tinseau can have the paternity of a theorem stated by Descartes in 17th century. From 1789, after the

French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are considere ...

, he lived in exile due to his radical monarchic convictions. He was in permanent contact with Charles-Philippe (the future king

Charles X of France Charles X (born Charles Philippe, Count of Artois; 9 October 1757 – 6 November 1836) was King of France from 16 September 1824 until 2 August 1830. An uncle of the uncrowned Louis XVII and younger brother to reigning kings Louis XVI and Lou ...

), being his

personal aide-de-camp Personal Aide-de-Camp to the King (or Queen) is an appointment in the Royal Household of the United Kingdom. It is distinct from that of other aides-de-camp, in that it is only bestowed on members of the British royal family holding military r ...

., MacTutor History of Mathematics. From 1792 he published several politic pamphlets defending the borbonic monarchy against the power of the Etats Generaux., page 53. During the Napoleonic period he remained in exile and, probably, acted as an agent of the Allies against France. The intransigence of his political views is evident in the dozen of political writings published between 1792 and 1805. In 1816, two years after

Bourbon Restoration Bourbon Restoration may refer to: France under the House of Bourbon: * Bourbon Restoration in France (1814, after the French revolution and Napoleonic era, until 1830; interrupted by the Hundred Days in 1815) Spain under the Spanish Bourbons: * ...

in France in the person of

Louis XVIII of France Louis XVIII (Louis Stanislas Xavier; 17 November 1755 – 16 September 1824), known as the Desired (), was King of France from 1814 to 1824, except for a brief interruption during the Hundred Days in 1815. He spent twenty-three years in e ...

, he returned to France, but at the advanced age of 68, he retired immediately.

References

Bibliography

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External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Tinseau D Amondans, Charles De 1748 births 1822 deaths 18th-century French mathematicians Military personnel from Besançon French military engineers Scientists from Besançon