Jean Henri van Swinden (8 June 1746 – 9 March 1823) was a Dutch mathematician and physicist who taught at the University of Franeker and in the Athenaeum Illustre of Amsterdam.

Biography

His parents were the lawyer Phillippe van Swinden and Marie Anne Tollosan. He was trained 1763-1766 at the

Leiden University Leiden University (abbreviated as ''LEI''; ) is a Public university, public research university in Leiden, Netherlands. Established in 1575 by William the Silent, William, Prince of Orange as a Protestantism, Protestant institution, it holds the d ...

, where he became doctor of philosophy on 12 June 1766 with the thesis ''De attractione''. He became professor at the University of Franeker the same year, where he continued to study and conduct research as well as teach. In 1776 he won a prize from the

French Academy of 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 ...

along with

Charles-Augustin de Coulomb Charles-Augustin de Coulomb ( ; ; 14 June 1736 – 23 August 1806) was a French officer, engineer, and physicist. He is best known as the eponymous discoverer of what is now called Coulomb's law, the description of the electrostatic force of att ...

for his work on

Earth's magnetic field Earth's magnetic field, also known as the geomagnetic field, is the magnetic field that extends from structure of Earth, Earth's interior out into space, where it interacts with the solar wind, a stream of charged particles emanating from ...

, and the relationship between

magnetism Magnetism is the class of physical attributes that occur through a magnetic field, which allows objects to attract or repel each other. Because both electric currents and magnetic moments of elementary particles give rise to a magnetic field, ...

and

electricity Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter possessing an electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as described by Maxwel ...

. A year later he won a prize from the

Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities The Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities () is an independent public institution, located in Munich. It appoints scholars whose research has contributed considerably to the increase of knowledge within their subject. The general goal of th ...

. His description of Eise Eisinga's

planetarium A planetarium (: planetariums or planetaria) is a theatre built primarily for presenting educational and entertaining shows about astronomy and the night sky, or for training in celestial navigation. A dominant feature of most planetariums is ...

in 1780 was later republished. In 1785 he moved to Amsterdam where he became professor at the Athenaeum Illustre of Amsterdam. There he was instrumental in introducing a

house numbering House numbering is the system of giving a unique number to each building in a street or area, with the intention of making it easier to locate a particular building. The house number is often part of a Address (geography), postal address. The ter ...

system (useful for the postal service) and in 1795 he directed the first census. In 1798 he led a commission to report on the state of the health of the inhabitants of Amsterdam, based on the results of the census. He was part of an international commission to determine the length of the meter, as a first step to introducing the

metric system The metric system is a system of measurement that standardization, standardizes a set of base units and a nomenclature for describing relatively large and small quantities via decimal-based multiplicative unit prefixes. Though the rules gover ...

in the Netherlands. His lectures at Felix Meritis from 1777 onwards on this subject were bundled and published as ''Verhandeling over volmaakte maaten en gewigten'' in 1802. His international good name led him to be appointed as representative during the French occupation. He was one of the founders appointed by

Louis Bonaparte Louis Bonaparte (born Luigi Buonaparte; 2 September 1778 – 25 July 1846) was a younger brother of Napoleon, Napoleon I, Emperor of the French. He was a monarch in his own right from 1806 to 1810, ruling over the Kingdom of Holland (a French c ...

in 1808 for the Koninklijk Instituut van Wetenschappen along with Martinus van Marum,

Martinus Stuart Martinus Stuart (Rotterdam, 4 October 1765 – Amsterdam, 22 November 1826) was a Dutch pastor and historian. He was appointed by William I of the Netherlands, King William I as ''historian of the kingdom''. Life and work Stuart was born in Rot ...

, and Jeronimo de Bosch.

Legacy

The ''Van Swinden Laboratorium'', today the Nederlands Meetinstituut, was named after him in 1971 and several streets in Amsterdam are named after him.

References

* P.C. Molhuysen en P.J. Blok (ed.)
Nieuw Nederlandsch biografisch woordenboek
Part 4, A.W. Sijthoff, Leiden, 1918 {{DEFAULTSORT:Swinden, Jean Henri 1746 births 1823 deaths 18th-century Dutch philosophers 18th-century Dutch physicists 18th-century Dutch mathematicians Leiden University alumni Members of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences Academic staff of the University of Franeker Scientists from The Hague 19th-century Dutch physicists Members of the Uitvoerend Bewind Members of the Provisional Representatives of the People of Holland Members of the Assembly of Notables (Netherlands)