Bernard Forest de Bélidor (1698,

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– 8 September 1761,

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) was a French

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who Invention, invent, design, build, maintain and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials. They aim to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while ...

, significant to the development of the science of

hydraulics Hydraulics () is a technology and applied science using engineering, chemistry, and other sciences involving the mechanical properties and use of liquids. At a very basic level, hydraulics is the liquid counterpart of pneumatics, which concer ...

and

ballistics Ballistics is the field of mechanics concerned with the launching, flight behaviour and impact effects of projectiles, especially weapon munitions such as bullets, unguided bombs, rockets and the like; the science or art of designing and acceler ...

. He was the son of Jean Baptiste Foret de Belidor, an officer of dragoons, and his wife, Marie Héber but was orphaned at five months old and brought up by the family of his godfather, an artillery officer named de Fossiébourg. Bélidor enlisted in the army at a young age. After leaving the army, he developed an interest in science and engineering, and became professor at the school of artillery of La Fère in

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. For a while he worked on measuring the arc of the earth. In the years to come he published several works of great importance, on a wide range of subjects, including hydraulics,

mathematics Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...

, and civil and military engineering. His most famous book is ''L'architecture hydraulique'' (published in four volumes from 1737 to 1753). Here,

integral calculus In mathematics, an integral is the continuous analog of a sum, which is used to calculate areas, volumes, and their generalizations. Integration, the process of computing an integral, is one of the two fundamental operations of calculus,Int ...

is used for the first time in solving technical problems. Bélidor was the teacher of

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n favourite, Abram Petrovich Gannibal. In November 1726, he was elected a

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. He married the daughter or granddaughter of de Fossiébourg.

Works

*''Nouveau cours de mathématiques'', 1725 (first use of the term '' sinusoid'') *''La science des ingénieurs dans la conduite des travaux de fortification et d'architecture civile'', 1729 *''Le bombardier français, ou, nouvelle méthode pour jeter des bombes avec précision. Tables'', 1731 *''L'architecture hydraulique, ou l'art de conduire, d'élever et de ménager les eaux pour les différents besoins de la vie'', (1737-1753) *''Dictionnaire portatif de l'ingénieur'', 1758

References

External links

Bélidor works
in the French National Library {{DEFAULTSORT:Belidor, Bernard Forest De 1698 births 1761 deaths French engineers 18th-century French mathematicians Ballistics experts Members of the French Academy of Sciences Fellows of the Royal Society