René Antoine Ferchault de Réaumur
French entomologist and inventor of the Réaumur temperature scale.
via Wikipedia: René Antoine Ferchault de Réaumur · see source
René Antoine Ferchault de Réaumur is best known for introducing the Réaumur temperature scale.
Quick Facts
- Born
- 28 February 1683
- Birthplace
- La Rochelle, Aunis, Kingdom of France
- Died
- 17 October 1757
- Place of death
- Saint-Julien-du-Terroux, Kingdom of France
- Field
- Entomology
- Known for
- Temperature scale named after him, founder of ethology
- Patrons
- Pierre Varignon
Facts from the source article.
Lore & Background
Réaumur was born in a prominent La Rochelle family and educated in Paris. For nearly half a century, hardly a year passed without a paper by Réaumur in the Mémoires de l'Académie. His early work focused on geometry. He loved retirement and lived at his country residences, including his chateau La Bermondière, where a serious fall from a horse led to his death. He bequeathed his manuscripts and natural history collections to the Académie des Sciences.
Reader's Guide
Réaumur's significance lies in his wide-ranging contributions across multiple sciences. He devised the method of tinning iron still employed, and correctly showed that carbon content differs in cast iron, steel, and wrought iron. In natural history, he described the locomotor system of Echinodermata and showed they could replace lost limbs. He wrote on spiders producing silk, which the Kangxi Emperor had translated into Chinese. His observations of wasps making paper from wood fibers are credited with influencing paper-making techniques, though industrial use of wood pulp came over a century later. He studied insect growth and temperature, computed population growth rates, and noted natural checks preventing geometric progression.
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