Prosper Jules Elie Charbonnier (1862 –1936) was a French naval officer, engineer, and ballistics expert. Charbonnier entered the l‘ Ecole polytechnique in 1884 and served in

Lorient Lorient (; ) is a town (''Communes of France, commune'') and Port, seaport in the Morbihan Departments of France, department of Brittany (administrative region), Brittany in western France. History Prehistory and classical antiquity Beginn ...

in the ''Régiment d’Artillerie de Marine'' (RAMA). He was promoted to ''capitaine en second'' en 1892 and then was appointed a member of the Commission for Artillery Experiments at

Gâvres Gâvres (; ) is a commune in the Morbihan department of Brittany in north-western France. French Navy Minister Hyde de Neuville chose this place as a military testing area in 1829 for heavy marine ordnance.See the governmental directions of J ...

. In 1895 he was promoted to ''capitaine en premier'' en 1895. After serving in

Tonkin Tonkin, also spelled Tongkin, Tonquin or Tongking, is an exonym referring to the northern region of Vietnam. During the 17th and 18th centuries, this term referred to the domain '' Đàng Ngoài'' under Trịnh lords' control, including both the ...

and in China, he was promoted to squadron leader in 1903 and to ''lieutenant colonel'' in 1907. In 1910, he joined the new corps of engineers of naval artillery with the rank of ''ingénieur en chef de deuxième classe''. Charbonnier was promoted to director of naval artillery in Lorient and to president-director of the Commission of Gâvres in 1911, to ''ingénieur en chef de première classe'' in 1912, and to ''ingénieur général de deuxième classe'' in 1915. In 1918 he was appointed the Inspector General of the services of studies and experiments in naval artillery. He was a member of the ''Comité scientifique des poudres''. He retired from the navy in 1927. In 1915, Charbonnier sent a memo to his superiors, resulting in the recruitment of several noted French mathematicians to the work at Gâvres. Among those who worked at Gâvres were

Albert Châtelet Albert Châtelet (24 October 1883 – 30 June 1960) was a French politician and mathematician. Biography Châtelet was a student at the École normale supérieure (Paris) from 1905 to 1908, succeeding to the Agrégation (a highly selective comp ...

, Georges Valiron,

Joseph Kampé de Fériet Marie-Joseph Kampé de Fériet (14 May 1893 – 6 April 1982) was a French mathematician at Université Lille Nord de France from 1919 to 1969. Besides his works on mathematics and fluid mechanics, he directed the ''Institut de mécanique des flui ...

, and Arnaud Denjoy. (See p. 309.) Charbonnier became internationally recognized as a ballistics expert, and for his treatises on ballistics he was awarded in 1919 the

Poncelet Prize The Poncelet Prize () is awarded by the French Academy of Sciences. The prize was established in 1868 by the widow of General Jean-Victor Poncelet for the advancement of the sciences. It was in the amount of 2,000 francs (as of 1868), mostly for t ...

of the

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 1924 he was an Invited Speaker of the

ICM ICM may refer to: Organizations * Irish Church Missions, an Anglican mission * Institut du Cerveau, the Paris Brain Institute, a research center * Interdisciplinary Centre for Mathematical and Computational Modelling, University of Warsaw * Interna ...

in Toronto.

Selected publications

*''Le champ acoustique'' (1904) *''Traité de Balistique extérieure'' (1904)
''Balistique extérieure rationnelle''
(1907) *''Balistique intérieure'' (1908) *''Traité de balistique'' (Tome 1, 1921 – Tome 2, 1927) *''Essai sur l’histoire de la balistique'' (Prix Binoux de l’Académie des Sciences) en 1929.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Riquier, Charles 1862 births 1936 deaths Ballistics experts French military personnel of World War I