François Perrier

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General Francois Perrier

Francois Perrier (18 April 1835 – 20 February 1888) was a French soldier and geodesist.

Perrier was born at Valleraugue (Gard), , descended from a family of Protestants, of Cevennes. After finishing his studies at the Lyceum of Nimes and at St. Barbe College, he was received at the Polytechnic School in 1853, and left it in 1857, as a staff officer.

He was promoted to lieutenant in 1857, captain in 1860, major of cavalry in 1874, lieutenant-colonel in 1879, and he received a year before his death the stars of brigadier-general. He was commander of the Légion d'honneur and president of the council-general of his department.

General Perrier long ago made a name for himself in science. After some remarkable publications upon the trigonometrical junction of France and England (1861) and upon the triangulation and leveling of Corsica (1865), he was put at the head of the geodesic service of the French army in 1879. In 1880, the learned geodesist was sent as a delegate to the conference of Berlin for settling the boundaries of the new Greco-Turkish frontiers. In January of the same year, he was elected a member of the Académie des Sciences, as successor to M. De Tessan. He was a member of the bureau of longitudes from 1875.

In 1882, Perrier was sent to Florida to observe the transit of Venus, where his observations were a reported to be complete success. Thenceforward, his celebrity continued to increase until his last triangulating operations in Algeria.

General Perrier merits led to him being appointed head of the geographical service of the army, to the organization of which he devoted his entire energy.

General Perrier died at Montpellier on the 20th of February, 1888.