Pritchard, James; From Shipwright To Naval Constructor - Iowa State ...

16 James Pritchard
in 1727.69 Interest in hydrostatics-the science of fluid equilibriumand
hydraulics-the science of fluid motion-continued to attract
some of the greatest minds of the era. Jean and Daniel Bernoulli's
Hydrodynamica appeared in 1738, and their Hydraulics four years later.
D'Alembert published his Traite de l'equilibre et du mouvement desfluides
in 1744 and followed it eight years later with Essai d'une nouvelle theorie
de la resistance desfluides. Leonhard Euler's Scientia navalis appeared in
1749. Most important of all, in 1746, Bouguer published his Traite du
navire, de sa construction et des ses mouvements, which presented an accurate
method for calculating displacement, and announced his discovery
of the metacenter of ships-that point in space whose position in a
ship relative to its center of gravity governs its stability.70 Still, the
presence of all this mathematical knowledge cannot explain the success
of French application.
Duhamel considered Bouguer's work and that of Euler, who published
in Latin, to be far beyond the capacity of his students to absorb.
Indeed, he referred to these authors as "transcendent geometers"
engaged in "sublime speculations."71 In keeping with his program,
Duhamel collected ship models from the ports and, in 1748, housed
them with his school in the Louvre. Six years later, he published his first
textbook, Elements d'architecture navale, ou traite pratique de la construction
des vaisseaux. The Elements is the first training manual for aspiring naval
constructors ever produced. It is quite different from the numerous
theoretical investigations into hydrodynamics and hydrostatics that
had appeared during the previous three-quarters of a century. Indeed,
as much as possible, Duhamel avoided recourse to mathematical principles
chiefly because Bouguer and Euler had treated the theoretical
part of naval architecture so elegantly and completely that there was no
immediate need to follow up their work but also because he sought to
make his textbook useful to his students.72 Duhamel relied instead on
the organization of basic concepts and stressed respect for rational
inquiry into limits of everyday building techniques. He sought to
replace routine with best practice. He seemed to reject the Cartesian
dream that improved shipbuilding could be developed by "applying"
science.
69See Roland Lamontagne, La Vie et l'aeuvre de Pierre Bouguer (Montreal, 1962); also by
the same author, L'Atlantiquejusqu'au temps deMaurepas (Montreal, 1968), pp. 95-126 for
an extract from Bouguer's Traite du navire.
70Rene Taton, ed., The Beginnings of Modern Science from 1450 to 1800, trans. A. J.
Pomerans (New York [1958] 1964), pp. 429-33.
7'Henri-Louis Duhamel du Monceau, Elements d'architecture navale, ou traite pratique de
la construction des vaisseaux ([Paris, 1754]; 2d ed., Paris, 1758; [reprint Grenoble, 19701),
p. vi.
72Ibid.