BÉLIDOR

FRANCE (see also List of Individuals)

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.. 1693 Catalonia/E - 8.9.1761 Paris/F

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Bernard Forest de Bélidor lost his father aged five months and was brought up by an officer friend. Bélidor was educated in a monastery and was then recommended to the Duke of Orleans, who appointed him as professor at the Artillery School of Fère. He was a successful teacher in military matters and mathematics but aroused the jealousy of the master of the King's artillery and had to seek employment in Bavaria and Bohemia in the 1740s. In 1758 he became inspector of artillery and died three years later in an arsenal.

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Bélidor's many publications include mainly books on military sciences, such as on fortifications, on canons and how bombs could be directed into targets, or on the principles of ballistics. He is still known today for the encyclopedic Architecture hydraulique, a four volumes work published between 1737 and 1751. It had a significant influence on design and practice for more than a century to come, and is the first book that gives a full outline of the variety encompassed in hydraulic engineering. The book contains hundreds of accurate drawings of canals, bridges, pumps, naval structures and other engineering works of his days. It was also the first work of its kind to make practical use of the integral calculus. Henri Navier (1785-1836) presented an annoted version of Bélidor's work in the 1810s. Bélidor was elected a Member of Académie des Sciences in 1756. In 1825, the Société d'Encouragement pour l'Industrie Nationale offered a prize for the first to develop the hydraulic turbine as proposed by Bélidor. A part of the prize was won by Claude Burdin (1788-1873) in 1827 and the rest by his pupil Benoît Fourneyron (1802-1867) in 1832, who realized indeed the first turbine to work.

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_{Anonymous (1957). Bélidor. La Houille Blanche 12(11): 726. P}

_{Anonymous (1969). Bélidor, Bernard Forest de. A biographical dictionary of scientists: 43-44,}

_{T.I. Williams, ed. Black: London.}

_{Bélidor, B.F. de (1737). Architecture hydraulique. Jombert: Paris. P}

_{Bélidor, B.F. de (1739). La science des ingénieurs dans la conduite des travaux de fortification et d'architecture civile. Jombert: Paris.}

_{Bois, L. Du (1931). Un précurseur: Bélidor. La Concorde: Lausanne.}

_{Hoefer, J.C.F. (1866). Bélidor, Bernard Forest de. Nouvelle biographie générale: 196-197.}

_{Didot: Paris.}

_{Hutchinson, L. (2000). Bernard Forest de Bélidor. Science and its times 4: 424. Gale: Detroit. Navier, C.-L.-M.-H. (1819). Architecture hydraulique de Bélidor. Imprimerie Impériale: Paris.}