Bible Encyclopedias
Nicolas Louis de Lacaille

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

Search for…

Enter query below:

or

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W Y Z

Prev Entry
Nicolas Lemery

Next Entry
Nicolas Louis, Count Francois de Neufchateau

Resource Toolbox

Print Article

NICOLAS LOUIS DE LACAILLE (1713-1762), French astronomer, was born at Rumigny, in the Ardennes, on the 15th of March 1713. Left destitute by the death of his father, who held a post in the household of the duchess of Vendome, his theological studies at the College de Lisieux in Paris were prosecuted at the expense of the duke of Bourbon. After he had taken deacon's orders, however, he devoted himself exclusively to science, and, through the patronage of J. Cassini, obtained employment, first in surveying the coast from Nantes to Bayonne, then, in 1 739, in remeasuring the French arc of the meridian. The success of this difficult operation, which occupied two years, and achieved the correction of the anomalous result published by J. Cassini in 1718, was mainly due to Lacaille's industry and skill. He was rewarded by admission to the Academy and the appointment of mathematical professor in Mazarin college, where he worked in a small observatory fitted for his use. His desire to observe the southern heavens led him to propose, in 1750, an astronomical expedition to the Cape of Good Hope, which was officially sanctioned, and fortunately executed. Among its results were determinations of the lunar and of the solar parallax (Mars serving as an intermediary), the first measurement of a South African arc of the meridian, and the observation of io,000 southern stars. On his return to Paris in 1754 Lacaille was distressed to find himself an object of public attention; he withdrew to Mazarin college, and there died, on the 21st of March 1762, of an attack of gout aggravated by unremitting toil. Lalande said of him that, during a comparatively short life, he had made more observations and calculations than all the astronomers of his time put together. The quality of his work rivalled its quantity, while the disinterestedness and rectitude of his moral character earned him universal respect.

His principal works are: Astronomiae Fundamenta (1757), containing a standard catalogue of 398 stars, re-edited by F. Baily ( Memoirs Roy. Astr. Society, v. 93); Tabulae Solares (1758); Coelum australe stelliferum (1763) (edited by J. D. Maraldi), giving zoneobservations of 10,000 stars, and describing fourteen new constellations; "Observations sur 515 etoiles du Zodiaque" (published in t. vi, of his Ephemerides, 1763); Lecons elementaires de Mathematiques (1741), frequently reprinted; ditto de Mecanique (1743), &c.; ditto d' Astronomie (146), 4th edition augmented by Lalande (1779); ditto d'Optique (1750), &c. Calculations by him of eclipses for eighteen hundred years were inserted in L' Art de verifi s r les dates (1750); he communicated to the Academy in 1755 a classed catalogue of fortytwo southern nebulae, and gave in t. ii. of his Ephemerides (1755) practical rules for the employment of the lunar method of longitudes, proposing in his additions to Pierre Bouguer's Traite de Navigation (1760) the model of a nautical almanac.

See G. de Fouchy, "Eloge de Lacaille," Hist. de l'Acad. des Sciences, p. 197 (1762); G. Brotier, Preface to Lacaille's C'oelum australe; Claude Carlier, Discours historique, prefixed to Lacaille's Journal historique du voyage fait au Cap (1763); J. J. Lalande, Connoissance des temps, p. 185 (1767); Bibl. astr. pp. 422, 456, 461, 482; J. Delambre, Hist. de l'astr. au X VIII e siecle, pp. 457-54 2; J. S. Bailly, Hist. de l'astr. moderne, tomes ii., iii., passim; J. C. Poggendorff, Biog. Lit. Handworterbuch; R. Grant, Hist. of Physical Astronomy, pp. 486, &c.; R. Wolf, Geschichte der Astronomie. A catalogue of 9766 stars, reduced from Lacaille's observations by T. Henderson, under the supervision of F. Baily, was published in London in 1847.