Nicolas Fatio de Duillier
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Nicolas Fatio de Duillier (26 February 1664 - 12 May 1753) was a Swiss mathematician known for his work on the zodiacal light problem and his role in the Newton v. Leibniz calculus controversy.
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[edit] Early years
Fatio was born in 1664 as the 7th of 14 children of Jean-Baptiste and Cathérine Fatio in Basel, Switzerland. The family moved in 1672 to Duillier.
In 1682 at the age of 18 Fatio travelled to Paris to perform astronomical studies under the astronomer Giovanni Domenico Cassini at the Parisian observatory. His greatest success was the explanation of the nature of the zodiacal light in 1684, which he attributed to 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 helped to 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 (1638-1697) and worked out a solution of the inverse tangent problem. He also was friendly connected with Gilbert Burnet, John Locke, Richard Hampden and his son John Hampden. He became a fellow of the Royal Society in 1688 on the recommendation of John Hoskyns.
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
He had a very close relationship with Isaac Newton, 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 never finished it. Some of Newton's biographers have suggested that the relationship may have been romantic.[1] 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, over who was the inventor of the calculus. He indirectly reproached Leibniz in a letter in 1699, that Leibniz has taken hold of an intellectual property not belonging to him and therefore started the quarrel.
In 1707 Fatio came under the influence of a fanatical religious sect, the Camisards, which ruined Fatio's reputation. He left England and took part in pilgrim journeys across Europe. After his return only a few scientific documents by him appeared. He died in 1753 near Worcester, England.
After his death his Geneva compatriot Georges-Louis Le Sage tried to purchase the scientific papers Fatios. These papers together with Le Sage's are now in the Library of the University of Geneva.
[edit] Popular culture
Fabio appears as a supporting character in Neal Stephenson's novel series The Baroque Cycle (2003-04).
[edit] Notes
[edit] References
- Wolf, Rudolf: 1862, Biographien zur Kulturgeschichte der Schweiz. Vol. 4, pp. 67-86.
- Domson, Charles: 1972/1981, Nicolas Fatio de Duillier and the Prophets of London; ISBN 0-405-13852-0
- Zehe, Horst: 1980 Die Gravitationstheorie des Nicolas Fatio de Duillier, Gerstenberg Verlag Hildesheim; ISBN 3-8067-0862-2.
[edit] External links
- 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)
