HACHETTE

FRANCE (see also List of Individuals)

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6.5.1769 Mézières/F - 16.1.1834 Paris/F

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Jean-Nicolas-Pierre Hachette attended courses at Ecole Royale de Génie in Mézières, where he was taught by Monge, among others. Hachette graduated in 1787 from the University of Reims and was then employed as a technician at Mézières School. Hachette, a strong supporter of the French 1789 Revolution, moved as a professor of hydrography in 1792 to Collioure in the French South. Shortly later, Hachette returned to Mézières to teach mathematics and in 1794 left for Paris as one of the founders of Ecole Polytechnique. From 1799, Hachette there was a professor and organizer. He was the editor of Journal de l'Ecole Polytechnique until being forced out of the Ecole in 1816. From 1810, Hachette taught also at Ecole Normale and at Faculté des Sciences, Paris. Due to political reasons, Hachette was not elected to the Académie des Sciences.

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Hachette worked mainly on descriptive geometry, thereby following the innovativeness of his former teacher Monge, whose Géométrie descriptive Hachette edited in 1799. Hachette's interest was equally in optics, electricity, magnetism and scientific instruments. He also published on applied mechanics with a particular attention to hydraulic machinery, applied hydrodynamics and steam engines. His 1811 book with re-editions in 1819 and 1828 mentions the developments in applied mechanics of his contemporary Siméon-Denis Poisson (1781-1840) required for the understanding of hydraulic machinery, and Carnot's fundamental principle on the equilibrium in thermodynamics. Among the machines described are siphons, those presented by Bernard Forest Bélidor (1697-1761) in his four volumes, the fountains of Hero, the Archimedes screw, water and air pumps, and steam engines. Another chapter is devoted to water wheels and wind mills, with diagrams illustrating their movement.

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_{Dupin, C., Quetelet, A. (1836). Hachette. Annuaire Académie Royale de Bruxelles: 71-77. Hachette, J.N.P., Lanz, P.L., Bétancourt, A. de (1808). Ecole Impériale Polytechnique.}

_{Programme du cours élémentaire des machines. Imprimerie Impériale: Paris. Hachette, J.N.P. (1811). Traité élémentaire des machines. Courcier: Paris.}

_{Hachette, J.N.P. (1823). De la mesure des effets dynamiques dans les machines. Académie des Sciences: Paris.}

_{Hachette, J.N.P. (1830). Histoire des machines à vapeur. Huzard: Paris.}

_{Taton, R. (1972). Hachette, Jean Nicolas Pierre. Dictionary of scientific biography 6: 1-3. http://www-gap.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/%7Ehistory/Mathematicians/Hachette.html http://www-gap.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/HACHETTEhistory/Mathematicians/Hachette.html P}