Boulliau

Ismael Boulliau

Born: 28 Sept 1605 in Loudun, France
Died: 25 Nov 1694 in Paris, France

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Boulliau was a friend of Pascal, Mersenne and Gassendi and supported Galileo and Copernicus. In 1645 he published Astronomia philolaica which accepts elliptical orbits for planets. He claimed that if a planetary moving force existed then it should vary inversely as the square of the distance (Kepler had claimed the first power). It represents the most significant treatise between Kepler and Newton and it was praised by Newton in his Principia , particularly for the inverse square hypothesis and its accurate tables.

Boulliau was a close associate of Huygens and Huygens turned to him first with his discovery of the rings of Saturn and sent him pendulum clocks.

Other Web sites:

Rice University, USA

References:

  1. Dictionary of Scientific Biography
  2. G Bigourdan, Histoire de l'astronomie d'observation et des observatoires en France (Paris, 1918).
  3. R A Hatch, The Collection Boulliau (Philadelphia, 1982).
  4. P Humbert, Les astronomes francaises de 1610 à 1667, Bulletin de la Société d'études scientifiques et archéologiques de Draguignan et du Var 42 (1942), 5-72. 
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JOC/EFR February 1996