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Concept
Joseph Galien
Summary
Joseph Galien OP (born 1699, Saint-Paulien, France) was a Dominican professor of philosophy and theology at the University of Avignon, meteorologist, physicist, and writer on aeronautics.
Born at Saint-Paulien, near Le Puy-en-Velay in southern France, Galien entered the Dominican Order at Le Puy. He studied philosophy and theology at the Dominican institution in Avignon with such success that he was sent to Bordeaux as professor of philosophy as early as 1726. From the year 1745 on he held the chair of theology at Avignon, and from 1747 the chair of philosophy. He seems to have resigned his professorship in 1751 to devote his energies entirely to the study of meteorology and physics. Galien died in 1762 in the Dominican monastery at Le Puy, or, according to other accounts, in 1782 at Avignon.
He published Lettres théologiques touchant l'état de pure nature, la distinction du naturel et du sur-naturel, et les autres matières qui en sont de conséquences (Avignon, 1745); also the Explication physique des effets de l'électricité (Avignon, 1747).
But Galien's most important contribution was a booklet that he issued anonymously in 1755 at Avignon under the title "Mémoire touchant la nature et la formation de la grêle et des autres météores qui y ont rapport, avec une conséquence ultérieure de la possibilité de naviger [sic] dans l'air à la hauteur de la région de la grêle. Amusement physique et géométrique". The second edition of this booklet, this time with the name of its author, appeared as early as 1757. The change in its title renders it easy to discern what made the monograph so interesting. It was now called: "L'art de naviguer dans les airs, amusement physique et géométrique, précédé d'un mémoire sur la formation de la grêle."
After propounding his theory regarding hailstorms, Galien calculates how large an airship would have to be in order to transport an entire army with its equipment to Africa.
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