Charles du Fay

Charles François de Cisternay du Fay

Charles François de Cisternay du Fay (often also Dufay ) (born September 14, 1698 in Paris , † July 16, 1739 ibid) was a French naturalist and superintendent of the Jardin du Roi in Paris. He is remembered mainly for his treatises on electricity .

Life

Charles du Fay was a son of Charles Jerome de Cisternay du Fay (1662-1723) and his wife Elisabeth Landais. He came from an old noble family from Touraine who traditionally dedicated themselves to military service. His father was a lieutenant in the French Guard and had lost a leg in the bombing of Brussels in 1695 . Thereupon he retired from military service and became interested in the latest scientific findings and built up a very extensive scientific library.

In 1712, at the age of 14, du Fay became a lieutenant in the Regiment de Picardie . In 1718/1719 he took part in the siege of St. Sebastian and Fontarabia during the Anglo-Spanish War . It was around this time that du Fay began to study chemistry . In 1721 he accompanied his father and Cardinal de Rohan to Rome . During this trip his interest in antiquity and archeology was aroused.

On May 14, 1723 du Fay was accepted into the Académie royale des sciences as the successor to the deceased member Jean-Henri Imbert (? –1722) as an adjoint chemist ( adjoint chimiste ) . On August 26, 1724 he became an associate chemist ( associé chimiste ) and succeeded Claude-Joseph Geoffroy , who was promoted to pensioner. On February 6, 1731, du Fay himself was finally appointed pensioner of the chemistry section. Twice, in 1732 and 1737, he was vice director and twice, in 1733 and 1738, director of the Académie royale des sciences .

At the suggestion of Charles Lennox, 2nd Duke of Richmond , Hans Sloane and Martin Folkes , du Fay was inducted into the Royal Society on May 8, 1729 .

Du Fay died of smallpox .

Act

In 1732 Louis XIV entrusted him with the supervision of the Jardin du Roi , the royal plant garden, which at that time was in poor condition. Du Fay had new greenhouses built and initiated the exchange of plant material with the botanical gardens in England and Holland. With the help of the botanists Antoine and Bernard de Jussieu , the Jardin du Roi soon gained European prestige. Shortly before his death, he recommended Georges-Louis Leclerc de Buffon as his successor.

Charles du Fay discovered two types of electricity in 1733 and thus shaped thinking about the nature of electricity in the 18th century. Through experiments with static electricity, he discovered that the two types of electricity could neutralize each other. He designated the types of electricity as glass electricity ( French électricité vitreuse ) and resin electricity ( French électricité résineuse ). Glass electricity today corresponds to a positive charge (as defined by Benjamin Franklin and designation by Leonhard Euler ).

His discovery was also announced in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society in London.

Fonts (selection)

Original French essays

All of Du Fay's essays were published in the journal Histoire de l'Académie Royale des Sciences: avec les mémoires de mathématique & de physique pour les mêmes années .

• Mémoire sur les baromètres lumineux . 1723, pp. 295-306 (digitized version). (pdf) Archived from the original on November 23, 2008 . 
• Description d'une Pompe, qui peut servir utilization dans les Incendies . 1725, pp. 35-44 (digitized version). (pdf) Archived from the original on December 24, 2004 . 
• Description of the machine for connaitre l'heure vraie du soleil tous les jours de l'annee . 1725, pp. 67-78 (digitized version). (pdf) Archived from the original on December 24, 2004 . 
• Experiences on the dissolution of plusieurs sortes de Verres . 1727, pp. 32-39 (digitized version). (pdf) Archived from the original on November 23, 2008 . 
• Remarques on the polygones réguliers inscrits et circonscrits . 1727, pp. 297-304 (digitized version). (pdf) Archived from the original on November 23, 2008 . 
• Observations on quelques expériences de l'aimant . 1728, pp. 355-369 (digitized version). (pdf) Archived from the original on December 24, 2004 . 
• Mémoire sur la teinture et la dissolution de plusieurs espèces de pierres . 1728, pp. 50-67 (digitized version). (pdf) Archived from the original on November 22, 2008 . 
• Mémoire sur un grand nombre de phosphores nouveaux . 1730, pp. 524-535 (digitized version). (pdf) Archived from the original on November 22, 2008 . 
• Suite des Observations sur l'aimant . 1730, pp. 142-157 (digitized version). (pdf) Archived from the original on November 22, 2008 . 
• Troisième Mémoire sur l'aimant . 1731, pp. 417-432 (digitized version). (pdf) Archived from the original on November 23, 2008 . 
• Premier mémoire sur l'électricité, Histoire de l'électricité . 1733, pp. 23-35 (digitized version). (pdf) Archived from the original on November 23, 2008 . 
• Second mémoire sur l'électricité, Quels sont les Corps qui sont susceptibles d'Electricité . 1733, pp. 73-84 (digitized version). (pdf) Archived from the original on November 23, 2008 . 
• Troisième mémoire sur l'électricité, The Corps qui sont le plus vivement attirés par les matiéres électriques… . 1733, pp. 233-254 (digitized version). (pdf) Archived from the original on November 23, 2008 . 
• Quatrième mémoire sur l'électricité, De l'Attraction & Répulsion des Corps Electriques . 1733, pp. 457-476 (digitized version). (pdf) Archived from the original on November 23, 2008 . 
• Cinquième mémoire sur l'électricité, Où l'on rend compte des nouvelles découvertes… 1734, pp. 341–361 (digitized version). (pdf) Archived from the original on November 23, 2008 . 
• Sixième mémoire sur l'électricité, Où l'on examine quel report il ya entre l'Electricité, & la faculté de rendre de la Lumiére . 1734, pp. 503-526 (digitized version). (pdf) Archived from the original on December 24, 2004 . 
• Mémoire sur la roseé . 1736, pp. 352-374 (digitized version). (pdf) Archived from the original on November 22, 2008 . 
• Observations sur la sensitive . 1736, pp. 87-110 (digitized version). (pdf) Archived from the original on December 25, 2004 . 
• Septième mémoire sur l'électricité, Contenant quelques Additions aux Mémoires précédents . 1737, pp. 86-100 (digitized version). (pdf) Archived from the original on November 23, 2008 . 
• Huitième mémoire sur l'électricité . 1737, pp. 307-326 (digitized version). (pdf) Archived from the original on November 23, 2008 . 

German translations

• Experiments and treatises on the electricity of their bodies ... Erfurt 1745, online

proof

literature

• Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle : Éloge de Charles-François de Cisternai du Fay . In: Histoire de l'Académie royale des sciences - Année 1739 . Paris 1741, p. 73–83 (French, academie-sciences.fr [PDF]).
• Index biographique de l'Académie des Sciences du 22 December 1666 au 1st October 1978 et Supplement 1978–1993 . Gauthier-Villars, Paris 1979, p. 506 (French).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Károly Simonyi: cultural history of physics. Frankfurt a. M .: Harri Deutsch, Thun, 1995. ISBN 3-8171-1379-X , p. 324.
2. ↑ Hans-Peter Sang: History of Physics (Volume 1). Klett, Stuttgart 1999, ISBN 3-12-770230-2 , p. 52.
3. ^ A Letter from Mons. Du Fay, FRS and of the Royal Academy of Sciences at Paris, to His Grace Charles Duke of Richmond and Lenox, concerning Electricity. Translated from the French by TS M D. In: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society . Volume 38, 1733, pp. 258-266, doi : 10.1098 / rstl.1733.0040 .

further reading

• Henri Becquerel: Notice on Charles-François de Cisternai Du Fay, physicien, intendant du Jardin royal des Plantes (1698–1739) . In: Centenaire de la fondation du Museum d'Histoire Naturelle, 10 June 1793–1710 June 1893 . Paris 1893.
• Pierre Brunet: L'Œuvre scientifique de Charles François Du Fay (1698–1739) . In: Petrus nonius . Volume 3, Number 2, 1940, pp. 1-19.

Web links

• Entry to Fay; Charles Francois de Cisternay Du (1698-1739) in the Archives of the Royal Society , London
• Adolf Pabst: Charles-Francois du Fay, a pioneer in crystal optics . In: American Mineralogist . Volume 17, 1932, pp. 569-572, online .