Florence Rivault (or David Rivault de Flurence) (1571–1616) was a

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

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 ...

and royal servant. He was born probably at

La Cropte La Cropte is a commune in the Mayenne department in north-western France. Geography The Vaige forms most of the commune's north-western border, then flows southeastwards through the middle of the commune. See also *Communes of the Mayenne depa ...

, near Laval, Mayenne, France. He was a "

Gentleman of the Bedchamber Gentleman of the Bedchamber was a title in the royal household of the Kingdom of England from the 11th century, later used also in the Kingdom of Great Britain. A Lord of the Bedchamber was a courtier in the Royal Household; the term being fir ...

" to Henry IV, and a teacher of

Louis XIII Louis XIII (; sometimes called the Just; 27 September 1601 – 14 May 1643) was King of France from 1610 until his death in 1643 and King of Navarre (as Louis II) from 1610 to 1620, when the crown of Navarre was merged with the French crown ...

. He discovered that water, if confined in a

bomb A bomb is an explosive weapon that uses the Exothermic process, exothermic reaction of an explosive material to provide an extremely sudden and violent release of energy. Detonations inflict damage principally through ground- and atmosphere-t ...

shell and heated, would explode the shell. He published that fact in his treatise on

artillery Artillery is a class of heavy military ranged weapons that launch munitions far beyond the range and power of infantry firearms. Early artillery development focused on the ability to breach defensive walls and fortifications during siege ...

in 1605, where he wrote: "The water is converted into air, and its vaporization is followed by violent explosion." His discovery is seen as one of the steps leading to the invention of the

steam engine A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid. The steam engine uses the force produced by steam pressure to push a piston back and forth inside a cylinder. This pushing force can be trans ...

. He died in

Tours, France Tours ( , ) is one of the largest cities in the region of Centre-Val de Loire, France. It is the prefecture of the department of Indre-et-Loire. The commune of Tours had 136,463 inhabitants as of 2018 while the population of the whole metrop ...

in January 1616.

Works

* ''L'effet de la raréfaction de l'eau ad e quoi épouvanter les plut assurés des homme''n ''Elément d'artilierie'', p. 117-118. Paris, 1605

References

* Robert Henry Thurston, ''A history of the growth of the steam-engine'', D. Appleton and company, 1903
Google Print, p.15-16
(public domain) * ''Mechanics' magazine and journal of public internal improvement'', Volume 1, S.N. Dickinson, 1830
Google Print, p.115
(public domain) 17th-century French mathematicians 1571 births 1616 deaths 16th-century French mathematicians {{France-mathematician-stub