René-Just Haüy

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René-Just Haüy.

René-Just Haüy , also Abbé Haüy, (born February 28, 1743 in Saint-Just-en-Chaussée on the Oise , † June 3, 1822 in Paris ) was a French mineralogist. The mineral Haüyn is named after him.

Live and act

Haüy was the son of the weaver Just Haüy and his wife Madeleine Candelot. He had a younger brother, Valentin Haüy . He received his school education first at the Collège de Navarre and later at the Collège du Cardinal Lemoine . He was then a Roman Catholic pastor. He became a teacher at the Collège Lemoine and was particularly concerned with botany . In 1783 he was elected to the Academy of Sciences in Paris.

In August 1792 he was imprisoned like other priests and his life was in danger, but he was released through the intercession of his pupil Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire and other scholars (many of the other priests who were captured were massacred a little later). In 1802 he became a professor at the Natural History Museum and founded the Museum of Mineralogy. At the end of the Napoleonic era, he lost his post and fell into poverty.

In 1804 he was elected a foreign member of the Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences ; since 1812 he was an honorary member. In 1809 he became a corresponding member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences and in 1818 a foreign member of the Royal Society . He was an honorary member of the Russian Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg and the Royal Society of Edinburgh .

Haüy described the symmetry law of crystallography . He dropped a crystal of calcite on the ground and found that the fragments had the same shape as the original crystal. From this he concluded that crystals are made up of smaller units that have the same shape as the crystal itself. He called these smaller units integrating molecules .

René-Just Haüy with goniometer

From this experiment from 1784 follows the law of rational indices , according to which each crystal face can be described by three (usually small) whole numbers ( see also Miller's indices ). This law applies to almost all crystals with the exception of the aperiodic crystals . He also made discoveries about pyroelectricity .

Haüy is immortalized by name on the Eiffel Tower, see: The 72 names on the Eiffel Tower .

The grave of René-Just Haüy and his brother Valentin Haüy , in the Père-Lachaise cemetery in Paris.

Works (selection)

  • Essai d'une theory on the structure of the crystaux . Paris 1784
  • Traité des caractères physiques des pierres précieuses . Paris 1817
  • Exposition raisonnée de la théorie de l'électricite et du magnétisme, d'après les principes de M. Aepinus, des académies de Pétersbourg, de Turin, & c. Par M. l'abbé Haüy (1787) BNF
  • De la structure considérée comme caractère distinctif des minéraux (1793)
  • Exposition abrégée de la theory on the structure of the crystaux, par M. Haüy (1793) BNF
  • Extrait d'un traité élémentaire de minéralogie (1797)
  • Traité de minéralogie (5 vols, 1801) BNF: Tome 1 Tome 2 Tome 3 Tome 4 Tome 5
  • Traité élémentaire de physique (2 vols 1803, 1806)
  • Tableau comparatif des résultats de la cristallographie, et de l'analyse chimique relativement à la classification des minéraux (1809)
  • Traité des pierres précieuses (1817)
  • Traité de cristallographie (2 vols, 1822)

Web links

Wikisource: René-Just Haüy  - Sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Catholic Encyclopedia
  2. ↑ PREMIER CONSERVATEUR DES COLLECTIONS DE L'ÈCOLE DES MINES - QUELQUES REPERES ( Memento of the original from September 15, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / euromin.w3sites.net
  3. ^ Historical members of the academy: René-Just Haüy. Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities, accessed on December 17, 2019 .
  4. ^ Past Members: René Just Haüy (1743-1822). Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences, accessed December 17, 2019 .
  5. ↑ entry on Hauy; René Just (1743-1822) in the Archives of the Royal Society , London
  6. ^ Fellows Directory. Biographical Index: Former RSE Fellows 1783–2002. (PDF file) Royal Society of Edinburgh, accessed December 17, 2019 .
personal data
SURNAME Haüy, René-Just
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Haüy, Abbé
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French mineralogist
DATE OF BIRTH February 28, 1743
PLACE OF BIRTH Saint-Just-en-Chaussée on the Oise
DATE OF DEATH June 3, 1822
Place of death Paris