Everything about Jean-andr Deluc totally explained
Jean-André Deluc (
February 8,
1727 –
November 7,
1817) was a
Swiss geologist and
meteorologist.
He was born at
Geneva, descended from a family which had emigrated from
Lucca and settled at Geneva in the 15th century. His father,
François Deluc, was the author of some publications in refutation of Mandeville and other rationalistic writers, which are best known through Rousseau's humorous account of his ennui in reading them; and he gave his son an excellent education, chiefly in mathematics and natural science. On completing it Jean-André engaged in commerce, which principally occupied the first forty-six years of his life, without any other interruption than that which was occasioned by some journeys of business into the neighboring countries, and a few scientific excursions among the
Alps.
During these, however, he collected by degrees, in conjunction with his brother
Guillaume Antoine Deluc, a splendid museum of mineralogy and of natural history in general, which was afterwards increased by his nephew
J. André Deluc (1763-1847), who was also a writer on geology. He at the same time took a prominent part in politics. In 1768 he was sent to Paris on an embassy to the
duc de Choiseul, whose friendship he succeeded in gaining. In 1770 he was nominated one of the
Council of Two Hundred.
Three years later unexpected reverses in business made it advisable for him to quit his native town, which he only revisited once for a few days. The change was welcome in so far as it set him entirely free for scientific pursuits, and it was with little regret that he removed to
England in
1773. He was made a fellow of the
Royal Society in the same year, and received the appointment of reader to
Queen Charlotte, which he continued to hold for forty-four years, and which afforded him both leisure and a competent income.
In the latter part of his life he obtained leave to make several tours in Switzerland, France, Holland and Germany. In Germany he passed the six years from 1798 to 1804; and after his return he undertook a geological tour through England. When he was at
Göttingen, in the beginning of his German tour, he received the compliment of being appointed honorary professor of philosophy and geology in that university; but he never entered upon the active duties of a professorship. He was also a correspondent of the
French Academy of Sciences, and a member of several other scientific associations. He died at
Windsor in 1817.
His favorite studies were geology and meteorology. The situation of his native country had naturally led him to contemplate the peculiarities of the earths structure, and the properties of the atmosphere, as particularly displayed in mountainous countries, and as subservient to the measurement of heights. According to
Georges Cuvier, he ranked among the first geologists of his age. His principal geological work,
Lettres physiques et morales sur les montagnes et sur l'histoire de la terre et de l'homme, first published in 1778, and in a more complete form in 1779, was dedicated to Queen Charlotte. It dealt with the appearance of mountains and the antiquity of the-human race, explained the six days of the Mosaic creation as so many epochs preceding the actual state of the globe, and attributed the deluge to the filling up of cavities supposed to have been left void in the interior of the earth. He published later an important series of volumes on geological travels in the north of Europe (1810), in England (1811), and in France, Switzerland and Germany (1813). These were translated into English.
Deluc's original experiments relating to meteorology were valuable to the natural philosopher; and he discovered many facts of considerable importance relating to heat and moisture. He noticed the disappearance of heat in the thawing of ice about the same time that
Joseph Black founded on it his ingenious hypothesis of
latent heat. He ascertained that water was more dense about 40 F. (4 C.) than at the temperature of freezing, expanding equally on each side of the maximum; and he was the originator of the theory, afterward readvanced by
John Dalton, that the quantity of aqueous vapour contained in any space is independent of the presence or density of the air, or of any other elastic fluid.
His
Recherches sur les modifications de l'atmosphere (2 vols. 4to, Geneva, 1772; 2nd ed., 4 vols. 8vo, Paris, 1784) contains many accurate and ingenious experiments upon moisture, evaporation and the indications of
hygrometers and
thermometers, applied to the
barometer employed in determining heights. In. the
Phil. Trans., 1773, appeared his account of a new hygrometer, which resembled a mercurial thermometer, with an ivory bulb, which expanded by moisture, and caused the mercury to descend. The first correct rules ever published for measuring heights by the barometer were those he gave in the
Phil. Trans., 1771, p. 158. His
Lettres sur l'histoire physique de la terre (8vo, Paris, 1798), addressed to Professor
Johann Friedrich Blumenbach, contains an essay on the existence of a General Principle of Morality. It also gives an interesting account of some conversations of the author with
Voltaire and
Rousseau. Deluc was an ardent admirer of Bacon, on whose writings he published two works;
Bacon tel quil est (8vo, Berlin, 1800), showing the bad faith of the French translator, who had omitted many passages favorable to revealed religion, and
Prcis de la philosophic de Bacon (2 vols 8vo, Paris, 1802), giving an interesting view of the progress of natural science.
Lettres sur le Christianisme (Berlin and Hanover, iSo,, 1803) was a controversial correspondence with Dr
Teller of Berlin in regard to the Mosaic cosmogony. His
Trail elementaire de geologie (8vo, Paris, 1809, also in English, by
de la Fite, the same year) was principally intended as a refutation of
James Hutton and
John Playfair. They had shown that geology was driven by the operation of internal heat and erosion. Their system required much more time than Deluc’s
Mosaic variety of
Neptunism allowed.
He sent to the Royal Society, in 1809, a long paper on separating the chemical from the electrical effect of the
dry pile a form of
Voltaic pile, with a description of the electric column and aerial electroscope, in which he advanced opinions so little in unison with the latest discoveries of the day, that the council deemed it inexpedient to admit them into the
Transactions. The paper was afterwards published in
Nicholson's Journal (xxvi.), and the dry column described in it was constructed by various experimental philosophers. His improvements to the dry pile has been regarded as his most important work although he wasn't in fact its inventor.
Many other of his papers on subjects kindred to those already mentioned are to be found in the
Transactions and in the
Philosophical Magazine. See Philosophical Magazine (November 1817).
Further Information
Get more info on 'Jean-andr Deluc'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://jean-andr___deluc.totallyexplained.com">Jean-André Deluc Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
