Jean-André Deluc

Jean-André Deluc or de Luc (8 February 1727 – 7 November 1817) was a Swiss geologist, natural philosopher and meteorologist. He also devised measuring instruments. Jean-André Deluc was born in Geneva. His family had come to the Republic of Geneva from Lucca, Italy, in the 15th century. His mother was Françoise Huaut. His father, Jacques-François Deluc, had written in refutation of Bernard Mandeville and other rationalistic writers, but he was also a decided supporter of Jean-Jacques Rousseau. As a student of Georges-Louis Le Sage, Jean-André Deluc received a basic education in mathematics and in natural philosophy. He engaged early in business, which occupied a large part of his first adult years, with the exception of scientific investigation in the Alps. With the help of his brother Guillaume-Antoine, he built a splendid collection of mineralogy and fossils. Deluc also took part in politics. In 1768, sent on an embassy to the duc de Choiseul in Paris, he succeeded in gaining the duke's friendship. In 1770 he became a member of the Council of Two Hundred in Geneva. Three years later, business reverses forced him to leave his native town; he returned, briefly, only once. The change freed him for non-scientific pursuits; with little regret he moved to Great Britain in 1773, where he was appointed reader to Queen Charlotte, a position he held for forty-four years and that afforded him both leisure and income. Despite his duties at court, he was given leave to make several tours of Switzerland, France, Holland and Germany. At the beginning of his German tour (1798–1804), he was distinguished with an honorary professorship of philosophy and geology at the University of Göttingen, which helped to cover diplomatic missions for the king George III. Back to Britain, he undertook a geological tour of the country (1804–1807). In 1773 Deluc was made a fellow of the Royal Society; he was a correspondent of the French Academy of Sciences and a member of several other learned societies.

About this result

This page is automatically generated and may contain information that is not correct, complete, up-to-date, or relevant to your search query. The same applies to every other page on this website. Please make sure to verify the information with EPFL's official sources.

Related publications (1)

Related people (1)

Experimental History and the History of Experience: Reconstructing the Scientific Expeditions of the 1770s to Mont Buet

Jérôme Baudry

On September 20, 1770, the brothers Jean-André and Guillaume-Antoine Deluc, two scientists from Geneva, finally reached the summit of Mont Buet (3096m) after two unsuccessful attempts. From this vantage point overlooking the Alps and Mont Blanc, they performed several physics experiments and accumulated meteorological, geological, and ethnographic observations. The picturesque account of their ascent sparked further vocations: in the 1770s, the Genevans Marc-Théodore Bourrit, Horace-Bénédict de Saussure and Marc-Auguste Pictet also traveled to Mont Buet to replicate the Deluc's experiments and to make their own observations. These expeditions contributed to transform the mountain into a “laboratory of nature,” in Saussure’s own words. In September 2020, August 2021 and September 2022, two hundred and fifty years after the first ascent, a group of historians of science followed several paths to the summit of Mont Buet to reconstruct the historical expeditions of the Genevan scientists. They took with them two replicas of the barometer designed by Jean-André Deluc, they replicated the experiments of the 1770s and they documented their ascent with the help of a photographer, a draughtswoman, and a sound artist. In this talk, I will discuss the implications, the outcomes and the limits of this experience of historical reconstruction, focusing on three initial proposals of the project: 1) reconstructing scientific activity in the field, rather than in the controlled context of the laboratory; 2) capturing the mountain as a lived milieu rather than as a geographical location; 3) integrating historical research and scientific mediation by producing a contemporary archive that dialogues with the historical actors’ inscriptions (texts, engravings, drawings, and paintings).

2022