Barthélemy Faujas de Saint-Fond

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Barthélemy Faujas de Saint-Fond

Barthélemy Faujas de Saint-Fond (born May 17, 1741 in Montélimar , † July 18, 1819 ) was a French geologist and volcanologist. Faujas de Saint-Fond was together with Déodat Gratet de Dolomieu (1750–1801) one of the first in France to publish new studies on volcanoes and volcanic rocks . The mineral faujasite is named after him.

Life

Barthélemy Faujas de Saint-Fond received his education at a Jesuit college in Lyon and later studied law in Grenoble . There he was accepted into parliament as a lawyer. In 1765 he became seneschal at the court in Montélimar , where he achieved high recognition. In his free time he explored the mountains of the Alps and the Massif Central . There he began his investigations into the shape and structure of rocks.

In 1775 he found a pozzolan deposit in Velay , which was later mined by the government. In 1776 he established relationships with the Count of Buffon , who immediately recognized the value of his scientific work. Invited by Buffon to Paris, Faujas ended his work as a lawyer and was appointed assistant to the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle (natural history museum) in Paris by Louis XVI . He later became the Royal Commissioner for Mining.

Fingals Cave around 1900

One of his most important works is Recherches sur les volcans éteints du Vivarais et du Velay (Investigations into the extinct volcanoes in Vivarais and Velay), which appeared in 1778. This publication documents his careful observations, from which he developed a theory of the formation of volcanoes. In his capacity as Commissioner for Mining, he traveled to most European countries and examined the rocks in their natural environment on site. Faujas was the first to recognize the volcanic origin of the basaltic columns in Fingal's Cave on the Isle of Staffa in Scotland.

In 1785 Faujas was appointed royal commissioner for factories, armories and royal forests. This earned him an income of 4,000  livres and 2,000 livres for travel expenses on top of his 6,000 livres salary as a natural history assistant.

Faujas was appointed professor of geology at the Jardin des plantes in 1793 , a post he held until he was 80 years old. In 1801 he was elected a foreign member of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences and in 1808 of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences . In 1818 he retired to his land in Saint-Fond in the Dauphiné .

Structure of faujasite

Faujas was particularly interested in the balloon experiments of the Montgolfier brothers and published a very thorough work on it in two volumes, the Description des expériences de la machine aerostatic de MM. Montgolfier, & c. (1783-1784). He also contributed many publications to the Annales and Mémoires of the Natural History Museum. Other works by him are Histoire naturelle de la province de Dauphiné (1787, 1782), Minéralogie des volcans (1784), and Essai de géologie (1803–1809).

Works (selection)

  • Physical treatise on the Trapp . Verlag der Akademischen Buchhandlung, Strasbourg 1789 ( limited preview in the Google book search - French: Essai sur les roches de Trapp .).
  • Description of the expériences de la machine aérostatique de MM. De Montgolfier et de celles auxquelles cette découverte a donné lieu, suivie de recherches sur la hauteur à laquelle est parvenu le ballon du Champ-de-Mars .. etc. Volume 1 . Cuchet, Paris 1783 (French, online ).
  • Description of the expériences de la machine aérostatique de MM. De Montgolfier et de celles auxquelles cette découverte a donné lieu, suivie de recherches sur la hauteur à laquelle est parvenu le ballon du Champ-de-Mars .. etc. Volume 2 . Cuchet, Paris 1783 (French, online ).
  • Mémoire sur la manière de reconnaître les différentes espèces de pouzzolane, et de les employer dans les constructions dans l'eau et hors de l'eau pour servir de suite . Nyon, Amsterdam 1780 (French, online ).
  • Mémoire sur des bois de cerfs fossiles, trouvés en creusant un puits, dans les environs de Montélimar en Dauphiné . J. Cuchet, Grenoble 1776 (French, online ).

Web links

Commons : Barthélemy Faujas de Saint-Fond  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Claude-Augustin Vieilh de Boisjolin, Alphonse Rabbe , Charles-Augustin Sainte-Beuve : Biographie universelle et portative des Contemporains: ou Dictionnaire historique des hommes vivants et des hommes morts . tape 2 . Chez l'éditeur, rue du colombier, 21, Paris 1836, p. 1642 f . (French, limited preview in Google Book Search).
  2. ↑ a b Barthélémi Faujas de Saint-Fond (1741-1819). In: annales.org. Les Annales des Mines, accessed March 6, 2013 (French).
  3. ^ WA Deer, Robert Andrew Howie, Jack Zussman, William S. Wise: Framework Silicates: Silica Minerals, Feldspathoids and the Zeolites . In: Rock forming minerals . 2nd Edition. Geological Society, 2004, ISBN 1-86239-144-0 , pp. 651 (English, limited preview in Google Book search).
  4. ↑ Holger Krahnke: The members of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen 1751-2001 (= Treatises of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, Philological-Historical Class. Volume 3, Vol. 246 = Treatises of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, Mathematical-Physical Class. Episode 3, vol. 50). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2001, ISBN 3-525-82516-1 , p. 79.
  5. ↑ Member entry by Barthélemy Faujas de Saint Fond at the Bavarian Academy of Sciences , accessed on February 2, 2017.
personal data
SURNAME Faujas de Saint-Fond, Barthélemy
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French geologist and volcanologist
DATE OF BIRTH May 17, 1741
PLACE OF BIRTH Montélimar
DATE OF DEATH July 18, 1819