Abstract
In 1816, Sophie Germain found herself in a new position. She had spent five years in almost single-minded concentration on the plate problem and had been awarded the prix extraordinaire. On the one hand, this gave her a sense of professional standing, authority, and self-esteem. She had been the one — for a while the only one — doing fruitful work in the investigation of the elastic behavior of surfaces; now her work had won a measure of public recognition.
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Chapter Eight: Publication
P.V. vol. 5, p. 595. (Session of 26 December, 1815). Legendre, Laplace, Poisson, Delambre, and Lacroix comprised the commission which set the subject of this competition.
For a full description of Sophie Germain’s contribution see Edwards, H. M.: 1977, Fermat’s Last Theorem, Springer-Verlag, New York. pp. 61–65.
Legendre, A. M.: 1827, ‘Recherches sur quelques objets d’analyse indeterminée et particulièrment sur le théorème de Fermat’, Mém. Acad. Royal des Sci. de l’Institut de France 6.
Joseph Fourier, (1768–1830), jailed on two occasions during the years of revolution, assistant lecturer in mathematics at the Ecole Polytechnique in 1795, accompanied Napoleon on his ill-fated voyage to Egypt. He was appointed Prefect of the department of Isère in 1801, made a baron in 1808, and, although able to visit Paris only rarely, composed his now-classic treatise on the conduction of heat in solids during this period. In the aftermath of Napoleon’s reclamation of power in 1815, he was made Prefect of the Rhône, but for reasons that are not entirely clear, was relieved of his position within a few months. He then moved to Paris in order to devote himself full-time to mathematical pursuits. On his arrival, he might have been able to receive the recognition of several members of the Institute, but he had no job and little money. See Herival, J. W.: 1975, Joseph Fourier, The Man and the Physicist, Clarendon Press, Oxford.
Also Arago, F.: 1838, ‘Eloge historique de Joseph Fourier’, Mém. de l’Acad, des Sciences 14, lxix–cxxxviii. (English translation in Smyth, W. H., et al: 1857, Biographies of Distinguished Scientific Men, Longmans, London, pp.242–286.
Bibliothèque Nationale. MS. Fr. (Nouv. Acq.) 4073. Also in Henry, C: 1879, ‘Les manuscrits de Sophie Germain — documents nouveaux’, Revue phil. 8, p. 630. While May 2nd fell on a Thursday in 1822 as well as in 1816, the introductory tone of this letter suggests the latter date. The subject of the engraving is unknown — perhaps it was Euler.
Bibliothèque Nationale, MS. Fr. (Nouv. Acq.) 4073, Also in Henry, C, op. cit., p. 629.
Arago, F.: 1838, op. cit., lxxii.
Bibliothèque Nationale, MS. Fr. 9118. Also in Stupuy, op. cit., p. 318. 13 Ibid., p. 323.
Bibliothèque Nationale, MS. Fr. 9118. Also in Stupuy, op. cit., p. 324.
Bibliothèque Nationale, MS. Fr. (Nouv. Acq.) 4073. Also appearing in Henry, C, op. cit., p. 627. but with the year of this letter given as 1825. Clearly this is a misprint; in MS. 4073 it appears as 1821 and, furthermore. Delambre had died in 1822.
Germain, S.: 1821. Reserches sur la théorie des surfaces élastiques, Mme. V. Courcier, Paris.
Bibliothèque Nationale, MS. Fr. 9118. Also in Stupuy, op. cit., p. 312. While June 1 fell on a Thursday in 1826 as well as in 1820, by 1825 Fourier’s penmanship had deteriorated. This letter was written with a steady hand.
Bibliothèque Nationale, MS. Fr. (Nouv. Acq.) 4073. Also in Henry, C, op. cit., p. 628.
Ibid., p. 631. December 6 fell on a Wednesday in 1826 as well as in 1820, but Sophie Germain’s mother had died in 1823.
Germain, S.: 1821, op. cit.
Germain, S.: 1821, op. cit.
Ibid.
Ibid. Poisson had another notion of what an appropriate, all-powerful hypothesis was, namely that of ‘sensible forces at insensible distances’.
Bibliothèque Nationale, MS. Fr. 9118. Also in Stupuy, op. cit., p. 316.
Ibid., p. 317.
Ibid., p. 315.
Stupuy, op. cit., p. 313.
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© 1980 D. Reidel Publishing Company, Dordrecht, Holland
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Bucciarelli, L.L., Dworsky, N. (1980). Publication. In: Sophie Germain. Studies in the History of Modern Science, vol 6. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-9051-7_8
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