David Rivault de Fleurance (1571–1616) was a French

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, mathematical structure, structure, space, Mathematica ...

and royal servant. He was born probably at La Cropte, near

Laval, Mayenne Laval () is a town in western France, about west-southwest of Paris, and the capital of the Mayenne departments of France, department. Its inhabitants are called ''Lavallois''. The commune of France, commune of Laval proper, without the metropo ...

, France. He is the son of Pierre Rivault and Madeleine Gaultier who contracted marriage in 1550 ''David Rivault de Fleurance et les autres précepteurs de Louis XIII''
par Auguste-François Anis chez Picard 1893 pages 135 et 136 He was a "

Gentleman of the Bedchamber Gentleman of the Bedchamber was a title in the Royal Household of the Kingdom of England from the 11th century, later used also in the Kingdom of Great Britain. A Lord of the Bedchamber was a courtier in the Royal Households of the United Kingdo ...

" to Henry IV, and a teacher of

Louis XIII Louis XIII (; sometimes called the Just; 27 September 1601 – 14 May 1643) was King of France from 1610 until his death in 1643 and King of Navarre (as Louis II) from 1610 to 1620, when the crown of Navarre was merged with the French crown. ...

. He discovered that water, if confined in a

bomb A bomb is an explosive weapon that uses the exothermic reaction of an explosive material to provide an extremely sudden and violent release of energy. Detonations inflict damage principally through ground- and atmosphere-transmitted mechan ...

shell and heated, would explode the shell. He published that fact in his treatise on

artillery Artillery consists of ranged weapons that launch Ammunition, munitions far beyond the range and power of infantry firearms. Early artillery development focused on the ability to breach defensive walls and fortifications during sieges, and l ...

in 1605, where he wrote: "The water is converted into air, and its vaporization is followed by violent explosion." His discovery is seen as one of the steps leading to the invention of the

steam engine A steam engine is a heat engine that performs Work (physics), mechanical work using steam as its working fluid. The steam engine uses the force produced by steam pressure to push a piston back and forth inside a Cylinder (locomotive), cyl ...

. He died in

Tours, France Tours ( ; ) is the largest city in the region of Centre-Val de Loire, France. It is the prefecture of the department of Indre-et-Loire. The commune of Tours had 136,463 inhabitants as of 2018 while the population of the whole metropolitan ar ...

in January 1616.

Works

* ''L'effet de la raréfaction de l'eau ad e quoi épouvanter les plut assurés des homme''n ''Elément d'artilierie'', p. 117-118. Paris, 1605

References

* Robert Henry Thurston, ''A history of the growth of the steam-engine'', D. Appleton and company, 1903
Google Print, p.15-16
(public domain) * ''Mechanics' magazine and journal of public internal improvement'', Volume 1, S.N. Dickinson, 1830
Google Print, p.115
(public domain) 17th-century French mathematicians 1571 births 1616 deaths 16th-century French mathematicians {{France-mathematician-stub

Works

See also

References