François Sulpice Beudant (5 September 1787 – 10 December 1850), was a French

mineralogist Mineralogy is a subject of geology specializing in the scientific study of the chemistry, crystal structure, and physical (including optical) properties of minerals and mineralized artifacts. Specific studies within mineralogy include the proce ...

and

geologist A geologist is a scientist who studies the solid, liquid, and gaseous matter that constitutes Earth and other terrestrial planets, as well as the processes that shape them. Geologists usually study geology, earth science, or geophysics, althoug ...

. The mineral

beudantite Beudandite is a secondary mineral occurring in the oxidized zones of polymetallic deposits. It is a lead, iron, arsenate, sulfate with endmember formula: PbFe3(OH)6SO4AsO4. Beudantite is in a subgroup of the alunite group. It is the arsenate an ...

was named after him.

Life

He was born in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

. He was educated at the Ecole Polytechnique and Ecole Normale, and in 1811 was appointed professor of mathematics at the lycée of Avignon. Thence he was called, in 1813, to the lycée of Marseilles to fill the post of professor of physics, where he carried out the first measurements of the speed of sound in seawater. In the following year the royal mineralogical cabinet was committed to his charge to be conveyed into England, and from that time his attention was directed principally towards geology and cognate sciences. In 1817 he published a paper on the phenomena of crystallization, treating especially of the variety of forms assumed by the same mineral substance. In 1818 he undertook, at the expense of the French government, a geological journey through

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the ...

, and the results of his researches, ''Voyage minéralogique et géologique en Hongrie'', 3 vols

4to Quarto (abbreviated Qto, 4to or 4º) is the format of a book or pamphlet produced from full sheets printed with eight pages of text, four to a side, then folded twice to produce four leaves. The leaves are then trimmed along the folds to produc ...

, with atlas, published in 1822, established for him a European reputation. In 1820, he was appointed to the professorship of mineralogy in the Paris faculty of sciences, and afterwards became inspector-general of the university. He subsequently published treatises on physics and on mineralogy and geology. Perhaps his most notable publication is the second edition of ''Traite Elementaire de Mineralogie'' (Paris, 1830–1832), the second volume of which deals with descriptive mineralogy and in which Beudant coined the names of many minerals, such as

anglesite Anglesite is a lead sulfate mineral with the chemical formula PbSO4. It occurs as an oxidation product of primary lead sulfide ore, galena. Anglesite occurs as prismatic orthorhombic crystals and earthy masses, and is isomorphous with barite and ...

, bismuthite and

cerussite Cerussite (also known as lead carbonate or white lead ore) is a mineral consisting of lead carbonate (PbCO3), and is an important ore of lead. The name is from the Latin ''cerussa'', white lead. ''Cerussa nativa'' was mentioned by Conrad Gessner ...

. The mineral beudantite was named for him.Mindat.org
/ref>

Works

References

Attribution: *

Life

Works

References

Further reading