Jan Hendrik van Swinden (1746-1823), by Anonymous

Jean Henri van Swinden (

The Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital of ...

, 8 June 1746 –

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

, 9 March 1823) was a Dutch mathematician and physicist who taught in

Franeker Franeker (; fry, Frjentsjer) is one of the eleven historical cities of Friesland and capital of the municipality of Waadhoeke. It is located north of the Van Harinxmakanaal and about 20 km west of Leeuwarden. As of 1 January 2014, it had 12, ...

and Amsterdam.

Biography

His parents were the lawyer Phillippe van Swinden and Marie Anne Tollosan. He was trained 1763-1766 at the

University of Leiden Leiden University (abbreviated as ''LEI''; nl, Universiteit Leiden) is a public research university in Leiden, Netherlands. The university was founded as a Protestant university in 1575 by William, Prince of Orange, as a reward to the city of Le ...

, where he became doctor of philosophy on 12 June 1766 with the thesis "Natural power of attraction". He became professor at the

University of Franeker The University of Franeker (1585–1811) was a university in Franeker, Friesland, the Netherlands. It was the second oldest university of the Netherlands, founded shortly after Leiden University. History Also known as ''Academia Franekerensis'' o ...

the same year, where he continued to study and conduct research as well as teach. In 1776 he won a prize from the

Académie Royale des Sciences The French Academy of Sciences (French: ''Académie des sciences'') is a learned society, founded in 1666 by Louis XIV at the suggestion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, to encourage and protect the spirit of French scientific research. It was at the ...

along with

Charles-Augustin de Coulomb Charles-Augustin de Coulomb (; ; 14 June 1736 – 23 August 1806) was a French officer, engineer, and physicist. He is best known as the eponymous discoverer of what is now called Coulomb's law, the description of the electrostatic force of attrac ...

for his work on

earth's magnetic field Earth's magnetic field, also known as the geomagnetic field, is the magnetic field that extends from Earth's interior out into space, where it interacts with the solar wind, a stream of charged particles emanating from the Sun. The magnetic f ...

, and the relationship between

magnetism Magnetism is the class of physical attributes that are mediated by a magnetic field, which refers to the capacity to induce attractive and repulsive phenomena in other entities. Electric currents and the magnetic moments of elementary particles ...

and

electricity Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter that has a property of electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as described ...

. A year later he won a prize from the

Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities The Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities (german: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften) is an independent public institution, located in Munich. It appoints scholars whose research has contributed considerably to the increase of knowledg ...

. His description of

Eise Eisinga Eise Jeltes Eisinga (21 February 1744 – 27 August 1828) was a Frisian amateur astronomer who built the Eise Eisinga Planetarium in his house in Franeker, Dutch Republic. The orrery still exists and is the oldest functioning planetarium in the w ...

planetarium A planetarium ( planetariums or ''planetaria'') is a theatre built primarily for presenting educational and entertaining shows about astronomy and the night sky, or for training in celestial navigation. A dominant feature of most planetarium ...

in 1780 was later republished. In 1785 he moved to Amsterdam where he became professor at the

Athenaeum Illustre of Amsterdam Athenaeum Illustre, or Amsterdamse Atheneum, was a city-sponsored 'illustrious school' founded after the beeldenstorm in the old ''Agnieten'' chapel on the Oudezijds Voorburgwal 231 in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Famous scientists such as Caspar Barla ...

. There he was instrumental in introducing a

house numbering House numbering is the system of giving a unique number to each building in a street or area, with the intention of making it easier to locate a particular building. The house number is often part of a postal address. The term describes the numb ...

system (useful for the postal service) and in 1795 he directed the first census. In 1798 he led a commission to report on the state of the health of the inhabitants of Amsterdam, based on the results of the census. He was part of an international commission to determine the length of the meter, as a first step to introducing the

metric system The metric system is a system of measurement that succeeded the Decimal, decimalised system based on the metre that had been introduced in French Revolution, France in the 1790s. The historical development of these systems culminated in the d ...

in the Netherlands. His lectures at

Felix Meritis Felix Meritis ("Happy through Merit") is the name of an intellectual society in Amsterdam, but subsequently used for the building they built for themselves on the Keizersgracht. History It was built according to a winning design by the arch ...

from 1777 onwards on this subject were bundled and published as ''Verhandeling over volmaakte maaten en gewigten'' in 1802. His international good name led him to be appointed as representative during the French occupation. He was one of the founders appointed by

Louis Bonaparte Louis Napoléon Bonaparte (born Luigi Buonaparte; 2 September 1778 – 25 July 1846) was a younger brother of Napoleon I, Emperor of the French. He was a monarch in his own right from 1806 to 1810, ruling over the Kingdom of Holland (a French cl ...

in 1808 for the Koninklijk Instituut van Wetenschappen along with

Martinus van Marum Martin(us) van Marum (20 March 1750, Delft – 26 December 1837, Haarlem) was a Dutch physician, inventor, scientist and teacher, who studied medicine and philosophy in Groningen. Van Marum introduced modern chemistry in the Netherlands after ...

Martinus Stuart Martinus Stuart (Rotterdam, 4 October 1765 – Amsterdam, 22 November 1826) was a Dutch pastor and historian. He was appointed by King William I as ''historian of the kingdom''. Life and work Stuart was born in Rotterdam in 1765 as the son of ...

, and

Jeronimo de Bosch Hieronymus de Bosch or Jeronimo de Bosch (23 March 1740 in Amsterdam – 1 June 1811 in Leiden) was a Latin poet and notable scholar from the Netherlands. He wrote several books, the most important of which was the "Anthologia Graeca", containin ...

Legacy

The ''Van Swinden Laboratorium'', today the

Nederlands Meetinstituut Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People ...

, was named after him in 1971 and several streets in Amsterdam are named after him.

References

* P.C. Molhuysen en P.J. Blok (ed.)
Nieuw Nederlandsch biografisch woordenboek
Part 4, A.W. Sijthoff, Leiden, 1918 {{DEFAULTSORT:Swinden, Jean Henri 1746 births 1823 deaths 18th-century Dutch philosophers 18th-century Dutch physicists 18th-century Dutch mathematicians Leiden University alumni Members of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences Academic staff of the University of Franeker Scientists from The Hague 19th-century Dutch physicists