Henri-Louis Duhamel du Monceau

Henri-Louis Duhamel du Monceau (July 20, 1700 Paris - August 13, 1782, Paris), was a French naval engineer and botanist. He was involved in the foundation of the "Académie de marine de Brest", on 31 July 1752, and published Les éléments d'architecture navale ("Elements of naval architecture").

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Early life

Henri-Louis Duhamel du Monceau was born in Paris in 1700 the son of Alexandre Duhamel, lord of Denainvilliers.

Career

Having been requested by the Academy of Sciences to investigate a disease which was destroying the saffron plant in Gâtinais, he discovered the cause in a parasitical fungus which attached itself to the roots, and this achievement gained him admission to the French Academy of Sciences in 1728. From then until his death he busied himself chiefly with making experiments in plant physiology.

Having learned from Sir Hans Sloane that madder possesses the property of giving colour to the bones, he fed animals successively on food mixed and unmixed with madder; and he found that their bones in general exhibited concentric strata of red and white, while the softer parts showed in the meantime signs of having been progressively extended. From a number of experiments he was led to believe himself able to explain the growth of bones, and to demonstrate a parallel between the manner of their growth and that of trees. Along with the naturalist Buffon, he made numerous experiments on the growth and strength of wood, and experimented also on the growth of the mistletoe, on layer planting, on smut in corn, and others. He was probably the first, in 1736, to distinguish clearly between the alkalis, potash and soda.

From the year 1740 he made meteorological observations, and kept records of the influence of the weather on agricultural production. For many years he was inspector-general of marine, and applied his scientific experience to the improvement of naval construction.

He was involved in the foundation of the "Académie de marine de Brest", on the 31 July 1752.

In his additions to l’”Art de l’Epinglier” - The Art of the Pin-Maker - (1761), Henri Louis Duhamel du Monceau wrote about the "division of labour":

There is nobody who is not surprised of the small price of pins; but we shall be even more surprised, when we know how many different operations, most of them very delicate, are mandatory to make a good pin. We are going to go through these operations in a few words to stimulate the curiosity to know their detail; this enumeration will supply as many articles which will make the division of this labour. [...] The first operation is to have brass go through the drawing plate to calibrate it. [...]

This text is believed to have inspired Adam Smith for his famous work "An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations" published in 1776.

He died in Paris on 13 August 1782.

Books

His works are nearly ninety in number and include many technical handbooks. The principal are:

• Traité des arbres et arbustes qui se cultivent en France (1755),
• Les éléments de l'architecture navale ("elements of naval architecture"),
• Traité géneral des pêches maritimes et fluviatiles,
• Éléments d'agriculture,
• La Physique des arbres (1758),
• Traité des semis et plantations des arbres et de leur culture (1760),
• Histoire d'un insecte qui devore les grains de l'Angoumois (with Mathieu Tillet, published by H. L. Guérin & L. F. Delatour, Paris, 1762) Facsimile of the book
• Traité de l’exploitation des bois (1764),
• Traité des arbres fruitiers, and
• Traité du transport des bois et de leur conservation (1767).

References

• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition article "Henri Louis Duhamel Du Monceau", a publication now in the public domain.