Henri Louis Duhamel of the Heap

Biography

He follows the desires of his father and starts studies of right (1718 - 1721) but his true passion is the Botanique, field where he is distinguished very early. In 1728, it presents in front of the Academy of Science a report on a contagious disease concerning the saffron, one of the productions of the area of the Gâtinais. In 1731, the Academy entrusts to him the study of the improvement of the wood intended for naval construction. Duhamel is assisted by Buffon (1707-1788). Its work is worth to him to enter to the Academy in 1738. It specializes starting from this date in techniques of forestry production and contributes to the Academy more than sixty memories on the navy, agriculture and the trade.

Duhamel of the Heap was one of the most prolix authors, of most qualified also, true spirit encyclopetic. If one puts aside seventeen volumes that it gave to the collection of the Academy of Science starting from 1761, it published the most important works of French agronomy, the Traité culture of the grounds (1756), adaptation of Jethro Tull, and the Éléments of agriculture (1756), fruits of its personal experiences. It had made of its field of Denainvilliers, in the Gâtinais, a true station of experimental agriculture. Its functions with the navy made of him a specialist in wood and its Traité trees (1755) brings the proof from there

It also composed of the Éléments of naval architecture (1752) which will be used as a basis for the foundation in 1765, under the patronage of the duke of Choiseul, of the École of the engineer-manufacturers of the royal vessels , ancestor of the 3Ecole Nationale Sup3erieure of advanced techniques. At that time, the technique is still satisfied with rules quantified, but obtained empirically, such as for the hull of the ships. Duhamel of the Heap, in spite of work of the theorists, still had little confidence in the application of the Mathématiques to its art

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