Maurice d'Ocagne

Philbert Maurice d'Ocagne (born March 26, 1862 in Paris , † September 23, 1938 in Le Havre ) was a French engineer and mathematician .

His father, Mortimer d'Ocagne, was the author of a book on university education in France (Les Grandes Écoles de France) , a theater critic and the author of essays on economics and finance. D'Ocagne studied from 1880 at the École polytechnique and from 1885 was a civil engineer with the Corps de ponts et chaussées in hydraulic engineering. He also published mathematical essays, the first from 1877. In 1891 he became director of the Nivellement général de la France . In 1893 he became a tutor at the École polytechnique and from 1894 professor at the École nationale des ponts et chaussées . In 1901 he became director of the French map service. In 1912 he became professor of geometry at the École polytechnique and in 1920 general inspector for roads and bridges in France.

He is best known for his work on nomography (the name comes from him).

In 1922 he became a member of the Académie des Sciences , whose Leconte Prize he received in 1892 and whose Dalmont Prize he received in 1894. A street and a school in the 14th arrondissement of Paris are named after him. In 1901 he was president of the French Mathematical Society. In 1925 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences .

He wrote literary works such as the play La Candidate under the pseudonym Pierre Delix. From 1930 to 1936 he published a three-volume collection of biographies by physicists, mathematicians and engineers.

Fonts

• Cours de Géométrie descriptive et de Géométrie infinitésimale. Gauthier-Villars 1896 (lectures at the École des Ponts et Chaussées)
• Traité de nomography. 1899
• Coordonnées parallèles et axiales. Gauthier-Villars, Paris 1885
• Calcul graphique et nomographie. Doin, Paris 1908
• Calcul simplifié par les procédés mécaniques et graphiques.
• Course de géométrie. 2 volumes, Gauthier-Villars 1930 (lectures École polytechnique)
• Souvenirs et causeries. Plon, 1928
• Notions sommaires de géométrie projective à l'usage des candidats à l'École Polytechnique. Gauthier-Villars, 1924.
• Hommes & choses de science - Propos familiers. 3 volumes, Vuibert, 1930–1936
• Publisher: Napoléon et les savants (Conference 1934)
• Histoire abrégée des sciences mathématiques (editor René Dugas), Paris 1955

literature

• Joseph W. Dauben , Christoph J. Scriba (eds.): Writing the history of mathematics , Birkhäuser 2002, p. 499
• Jean Itard , Dictionary of Scientific Biography

Web links

• John J. O'Connor, Edmund F. Robertson :  Maurice d'Ocagne. In: MacTutor History of Mathematics archive .