Background

Charles Dupin was born on October 6, 1784, in Varzy, France. His father, Charles-André Dupin, was a lawyer and legislator. His mother was Catherine Agnès Dupin (her maiden name was also Dupin). Dupin was the second of three sons. His older brother, André, known as Dupin aîné, was a prominent lawyer and politician.

Education

Dupin graduated in 1803 from the École Polytechnique in Paris as a naval engineer.

Career

In 1801, under the guidance of his teacher Gaspard Monge, Dupin had made his first discovery, the eyelid (of Dupin). After assignments in Antwerp, Genoa, and Toulon, he was placed in charge of the damaged naval arsenal on Corfu in 1807. He restored the port, did fundamental research on the resistance of materials and the differential geometry of surfaces, and became secretary of the newly founded Ionian Academy.

In 1810, on his way back to France, he was detained by illness at Pisa; and during his convalescence he edited a posthumous book by his friend Leopold Vacca Berlinghierri, Examen des travaux de César au siège d’Alexia (Paris, 1812).

At the Toulon shipyard in 1813, Dupin founded a maritime museum that became a model for others, such as that at the Louvre. That year he published his Développements de géométrie. In the same year, he became a correspondent of the Institut de France.

In 1816, after some difficulty, Dupin was allowed to visit Great Britain to study its arsenals and other technical installations. The results were published in Voyages dans la Grande Bretagne entrepris relativement aux services publics de la guerre, de la marine depuis 1816 (1820-1824).

Settling down to a life of teaching and public service, Dupin accepted the position of professor of mechanics at the Paris Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers, a position he held until 1854. His free public lectures, dealing with mathematics and mechanics and their industrial applications, became very popular. His Applications de géométrie et de mécanique (1822) was a continuation of the Développements but placed greater stress on applications. Many of Dupin’s lectures on industry and the arts were published in Géométrie et mécanique des arts et métiers et des beaux arts (1825); his Sur les forces productives et commerciales de France appeared two years later.

In 1828 Dupin was elected deputy for Tarn, and he continued to serve in politics until 1870. In 1834 he was minister of marine affairs, in 1838 he became a peer, and in 1852 he was appointed to the senate.In 1855 he reported on the progress of the arts and sciences, as represented at the Paris World Exhibition; the part of the report dealing with Massachusetts was published in English (1865).

Achievements

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  Charles Dupin made numerous contributions to differential geometry, notably the introduction of conjugate and asymptotic lines on a surface, the so-called indicatrix of Dupin, and “Dupin’s theorem,” that three families of orthogonal surfaces intersect in the lines of curvature. A particular case Dupin investigated consisted of confocal quadrics.
  
  Dupin also gave a more complete theory of the eyelids as the envelopes of the spheres tangent to three given spheres and discussed floating bodies. In 1840 he introduced what is now called the affine normal of a surface at a point.
  
  In 1824 the king made him a baron. He also became the Grand Officer of the Legion of Honour.

Works

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  • Développements De Géométrie 1813
  • Mémoires Sur La Marine Et Les Ponts Et Chaussées De France Et D'angleterre 1818
  • Essai Historique Sur Les Services Et Les Travaux Scientifiques De Gaspard Monge 1819
  • Applications De Géométrie De Mécanique À La Marine, Aux Ponts Et Chaussées 1822
  • Voyages dans la Grande-Bretagne, entrepris relativement aux services publics de la guerre, de la marine et des ponts et chaussées, au commerce et à l'industrie depuis 1816, Volume 5-6 1825
  • Voyages dans la Grande-Bretagne, entrepris relativement aux services publics de la guerre, de la marine et des ponts et chaussées, au commerce et à l'industrie depuis 1816, Volume 4 1825
  • Voyages dans la Grande-Bretagne, entrepris relativement aux services publics de la guerre, de la marine et des ponts et chaussées, au commerce et à l'industrie depuis 1816, Volume 2 1825
  • Géométrie Et Mécanique Des Arts Et Métiers Et Des Beaux-arts 1826
  • Le Petit Producteur Français 1827
  • Canal Marítimo De Suez 1857

Religion

Dupin was affiliated with the Catholic Church.

Politics

Dupin was a member of the Parti de l'Ordre.

Views

Dupin tirelessly encouraged the establishment of schools and libraries, the founding of savings banks, the construction of roads and canals, and the use of steam power.

Membership

Dupin was a member of both the Académie des Sciences (1818) and the Académie des Sciences Morales et Politiques (1832).

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  Académie des Sciences , France

  1818

• Académie des Sciences Morales et Politiques , France

  1832

Connections

Dupin married Rosalie Anne Joubert in 1830.

Father:

Charles-André Dupin

Mother:

Catherine Agnès Dupin

Spouse:

Rosalie Anne Joubert

Brother:

André Marie Jean Jacques Dupin

Brother:

Philippe Dupin

teacher:

Gaspard Monge

References

• Charles Dupin and His Influence on France
  2012
• Charles Dupin
  2009