René Antoine Ferchault de Réaumur

René Antoine Ferchault de Réaumur, born in 1683 into a prominent family of La Rochelle and educated in Paris, was a French entomologist and writer who contributed to many fields, especially the study of insects. He was nominated by his mathematics teacher Pierre Varignon and elected a member of the Académie des Sciences in 1708, at the age of 24. Interested in meteorology from 1731, he invented the thermometer scale that bears his name. He also studied iron and steel, devised the method of tinning iron that is still used, and correctly showed that carbon content is greatest in cast iron, less in steel and least in wrought iron. He proved experimentally that a rope is stronger than the sum of the strengths of its strands. His friends called him the Pliny of the 18th century, and he bequeathed his manuscripts, which filled 138 portfolios, and his natural history collections to the Académie des Sciences.