Nicolas Fatio de Duillier
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Nicolas Fatio de Duillier (* 26 February 1664 in Basel, † 12 May 1753 in Worcester) was an important mathematician in the late 17th century and is known by his work on the zodiacal light and his role in the Newton v. Leibniz calculus controversy.
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[edit] From Paris to London
Fatio was born in 1664 as the 7th of 14 children of Jean-Baptiste and Cathérine Fatio in Basel. The family moved in 1672 to Duillier.
In 1682 at the age of 18 Fatio travelled to Paris to perform astronomical studies under the famous astronomer Giovanni Domenico Cassini at the Parisian observatory. His greatest success was the explanation of the nature of the zodiacal light in 1684 which is valid to this day. He explains this phenomenon with particles reflecting the light of the sun.
In 1686 Fatio by chance became a witness to a conspiracy aimed at William of Orange which he could foil. In the same year he made the acquaintance of Jakob Bernoulli and Christiaan Huygens, with whom a particularly close cooperation was developed. Main contents of their work were the calculus.
In 1687 he travelled to London and made the acquaintance with John Wallis and Edward Bernard and worked out a solution of the inverse tangent problem. He also was friendly connected with Gilbert Burnet, John Locke and Richard Hampden. Finally he became a fellow of the Royal Society in 1688.
In 1688 he gave an account on the gravitational theory of Huygens before the Royal Society, whereby he tried to connect Huygens' theory with that of Newton. In 1690 he wrote a letter to Huygens, in which he outlined his own gravitational theory, which later was known as Le Sage's theory of gravitation. Soon after that he read its content before the Royal Society. This theory, on which he worked until his death, is based on minute particles which push gross matter to each other.
Around 1700 he and Pierre de Baufre tried to use jewels as wheel bearings in mechanical clocks. In 1705 both received a patent for that still common technology.
[edit] Newton, Leibniz and the Camisards
The relationship to Isaac Newton was very close, and from the beginning he was impressed by Newton's gravitational theory. In 1691 he planned to prepare a new version of Newton's Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica, but he never finished it. However, in 1694 the relationship between the two men cooled down. At this time several letter exchanges with Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz also took place.
However, Fatio is most known by his important role at the Newton v. Leibniz calculus controversy, who actually was the first inventor of the calculus. He indirectly reproached Leibniz in a letter in 1699, that Leibniz has taken hold of a intellectual property not belonging to him and therefore started the quarrel.
In 1707 Fatio came under the influence of a fanatical religious sect, known as the Camisards, which ruined Fatio's reputation. He left England and took part in pilgrim journeys across Europe. After the return only a few scientific documents of him appeared. He had exceeded his scientific zenith. Finally in 1753 he died near Worcester, England.
After his death his Geneva compatriot Georges-Louis Le Sage tried to purchase the scientific papers Fatio's. These papers together with Le Sage's are now lying in the Univ.-Library of Geneva.
[edit] Sources
- Wolf, Rudolf: 1862, Biographien zur Kulturgeschichte der Schweiz. Vol. 4, pp. 67-86.
- Zehe, Horst: 1980 Die Gravitationstheorie des Nicolas Fatio de Duillier, Gerstenberg Verlag Hildesheim; ISBN 3-8067-0862-2.
[edit] Weblinks
- Fatio de Duillier, N.: De la Cause de la Pesanteur, 1690-1701, Bopp edition. On pp. 19-22 is an introduction by Bopp (in German). Fatio's paper starts at the end of p. 22 (in French).
- Fatio de Duillier, N.: De la Cause de la Pesanteur, 1690-1743, Gagnebin edition. For an introduction by Gagnebin, see Introduction
- Fatio de Duillier, N.: "Letters no. 2570, pp. 384-389 and 2582, pp. 407-412, 1690, Huygens Oeuvres, Vol. IX. These letters contain the first written expositions of his theory. Huygens gave an answer in letter no. 2572)
