Name Bernard de | Role Engineer | |
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Died September 8, 1761, Paris, France | ||
Bernard Forest de Belidor (1698, Catalonia, Spain – September 8, 1761, Paris, France) was a French engineer, significant to the development of the science of hydraulics and ballistics.
He was the son of Jean Baptiste Foret de Belidor, an officer of dragoons, and his wife, Marie Heber but was orphaned at five months old and brought up by the family of his godfather, an artillery officer named de Fossiebourg. Belidor enlisted in the army at a young age. After leaving the army, he developed an interest in science and engineering, and became professor of artillery at the school of Fere-en-Tardenois in Aisne. For a while he worked on measuring the arc of the earth. In the years to come he published several works of great importance, on a wide range of subjects, including hydraulics, mathematics, and civil and military engineering. His most famous book is L'architecture hydraulique (published in four volumes from 1737-1753). Here, integral calculus is used for the first time in solving technical problems.
Belidor was the teacher of Peter the Great’s Ethiopian favourite, Abram Petrovich Gannibal. In November, 1726 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society.
He married the daughter or granddaughter of de Fossiebourg.