François Daviet de Foncenex

François Daviet de Foncenex (1734–1799) was a Royal Sardinian Army officer and mathematician.

Life and work

François Daviet de Foncenex was born in Thonon in the Duchy of Savoy in 1734. He studied in the Accademia di Torino under the professorship of Joseph-Louis Lagrange, who was two years younger than him. In 1759, Daviet was appointed as a member of the Accademia delle Scienze di Torino. He was commissioned as a lieutenant in the Royal Sardinian Army and quickly rose through the ranks. From 1790 to 1792, Daviet served as the governor of Sassari and Villefranche-sur-Mer. In 1792, he fought against the French Revolutionary Army; he was subsequently convicted of treason and sentenced to imprisonment for one year.

Daviet published two important papers in the journal of the Academy, Miscellanea Taurinensis: the first one (1759) about imaginary numbers is titled Mémoire sur les logarithmes des quantités négatives and has an extension titled Éclaircissements sur les quantités imaginaires; more important is the second one, titled Sur les principes fondamentaux de la méchanique (1761). In four sections (law of inertia, composition of forces, equilibrium and law of the lever) he tried to establish the a priori fundamental laws of mechanics.

In 1789 he published a paper: Récit d'une foudre ascendante éclatée sur la tour du fanal de Villefranche. Finally, in 1799, the academy published an ensemble of many of his works, named Principes fondamentaux de la méchanique.