Louis Puissant (22 September 1769, in

Le Châtelet-en-Brie Le Châtelet-en-Brie () is a Communes of France, commune in the Seine-et-Marne Departments of France, department in the Île-de-France Regions of France, region in north-central France. Population The inhabitants are called ''Châtelains'' in Fr ...

– 10 January 1843, in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

) was a French topographical engineer, geodesist, and mathematician. He was appointed an officer in the corps of topographical engineers (''ingénieurs géographes'') of l' armée des Pyrénées occidentales in 1792 and then a professor in l’école centrale d'

Agen Agen (, , ) is the prefecture of the Lot-et-Garonne department in Nouvelle-Aquitaine, Southwestern France. It lies on the river Garonne, southeast of Bordeaux. In 2021, the commune had a population of 32,485. Geography The city of Agen l ...

in 1796. From October 1802 to August 1803, he was in charge of geodesic triangulations on the island of

Elba Elba (, ; ) is a Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean island in Tuscany, Italy, from the coastal town of Piombino on the Italian mainland, and the largest island of the Tuscan Archipelago. It is also part of the Arcipelago Toscano National Park, a ...

and then in 1803–1804 in

Lombardy The Lombardy Region (; ) is an administrative regions of Italy, region of Italy that covers ; it is located in northern Italy and has a population of about 10 million people, constituting more than one-sixth of Italy's population. Lombardy is ...

. He was elected a member of l' Société Philomathique de Paris in 1810 and a member of l'

Académie des sciences The French Academy of Sciences (, ) is a learned society, founded in 1666 by Louis XIV at the suggestion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, to encourage and protect the spirit of French Scientific method, scientific research. It was at the forefron ...

in 1828. In addition to numerous scientific memoirs, he was the author of several books on geodesy and mathematics. His marriage to Françoise Coutet produced a son, Louis (1793–1836), who graduated from l'École polytechnique.

Principal publications

*''Recueil de diverses propositions de géométrie, résolues ou démontrées par l'analyse algébrique, suivant les principes de Monge et de Lacroix, à l'usage de ceux qui suivent le traité élémentaire d'application de l'algèbre à la géométrie de ce dernier'' (1801) *''Traité de géodésie ou exposition des méthodes astronomiques et trigonométriques, appliquées soit à la mesure de la terre, soit à la confection du canevas des cartes et des plans'' (1805) *''Traité de topographie, d'arpentage et de nivellement'' (1807) *''Cours de mathématiques à l'usage des écoles impériales militaires'' (1809) *''Supplément au second livre du Traité de topographie, contenant la théorie des projections des cartes'' (1810) *''Supplément au Traité de géodésie'' (1827) *''Nouvelle Description géométrique de la France'' (2 volumes, 1832–1840) * *

External links

*
''Éloge historique de Louis Puissant'' par M. Élie de Beaument, 14 juin 1869PUISSANT louis
– from

Comité des travaux historiques et scientifiques The Comité des travaux historiques et scientifiques (CTHS) (''Committee for Historic and Scientific Works'') is a French research institution created by the Minister of Public Education François Guizot on 18 July 1834 for the purpose of 'leading ...

LOUIS PUISSANT
from Société d'histoire du Châtelet-en-Brie {{DEFAULTSORT:Puissant, Louis French engineers French mathematicians French geodesists Members of the French Academy of Sciences 1769 births 1843 deaths People from Seine-et-Marne