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Jean Nicolas Fortin (1750–1831) was a French maker of 
Fortin is chiefly remembered for his design of death certificate
AD60 ()
''Atlas céleste de Flamstéed''
(Google books: ''2nd. ed.'' since Flamsteed's original is counted as the first) 1750 births 1831 deaths 18th-century French people 18th-century French scientists 19th-century French people 19th-century French scientists {{France-scientist-stub
scientific instrument
A scientific instrument is a device or tool used for scientific purposes, including the study of both natural phenomena and theoretical research.
History
Historically, the definition of a scientific instrument has varied, based on usage, laws, an ...
s, born on 9 August 1750 in Mouchy-la-Ville in Picardy. Among his customers were such noted scientists as Lavoisier, for whom he made a precision balance, Gay-Lussac
Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac (, , ; 6 December 1778 – 9 May 1850) was a French chemist and physicist. He is known mostly for his discovery that water is made of two parts hydrogen and one part oxygen (with Alexander von Humboldt), for two laws ...
, François Arago and Pierre Dulong.
Fortin is chiefly remembered for his design of barometer
A barometer is a scientific instrument that is used to measure air pressure in a certain environment. Pressure tendency can forecast short term changes in the weather. Many measurements of air pressure are used within surface weather analysis ...
, now called a ''Fortin barometer'', which he introduced in about 1800. In this, the mercury cistern has a glass portion through which the mercury exposed to the atmosphere can be seen, and an ivory needle which was made just to touch its mirror image in the mercury before the reading was taken. This allows for the fact that, when the mercury column in the closed tube falls, the level in the cistern rises, and the difference in height between the two cannot be accurately determined unless the height of the latter is taken into account.
In 1776 Fortin produced the ''Atlas céleste de Flamstéed'' a revised and updated edition of Flamsteed
John Flamsteed (19 August 1646 – 31 December 1719) was an English astronomer and the first Astronomer Royal. His main achievements were the preparation of a 3,000-star catalogue, ''Catalogus Britannicus'', and a star atlas called ''Atlas Coe ...
's ''Atlas Coelestis
The ''Atlas Coelestis'' is a star atlas published posthumously in 1729, based on observations made by the First Astronomer Royal, John Flamsteed.
The ''Atlas'' – the largest that ever had been published and the first comprehensive telescopic ...
'' (celestial atlas) of 1729, at about 1/3 of the original scale and in French. Maps from a later 1795 edition of this work were used by Messier to show the location of his discoveries.
On 15 May 1831 he died in Mouchy-le-Châtel (Oise).AD60 ()
References
*External links
''Atlas céleste de Flamstéed''
(Google books: ''2nd. ed.'' since Flamsteed's original is counted as the first) 1750 births 1831 deaths 18th-century French people 18th-century French scientists 19th-century French people 19th-century French scientists {{France-scientist-stub