Nicolas Fatio de Duillier

Nicolas Fatio de Duillier (1664 to 1753) was a Genevan mathematician, natural philosopher, astronomer, inventor and religious campaigner, born in Basel and brought up mostly in the Republic of Geneva, who spent much of his adult life in England and Holland. He is known for his collaboration with Giovanni Domenico Cassini on the correct explanation of zodiacal light as sunlight scattered by an interplanetary dust cloud, for his push or shadow theory of gravitation, for inventing the integrating factor as a method for solving ordinary differential equations, for his close association with Christiaan Huygens and Isaac Newton, and for his role in the Leibniz-Newton calculus controversy. He also invented the first method of fabricating jewel bearings for mechanical watches and clocks. Elected a Fellow of the Royal Society at the age of 24, he never achieved the position that his early connections had promised: in 1706 he joined the millenarian sect known in London as the French prophets, in 1707 he was sentenced to the pillory for sedition over the publication of their prophecies, and he continued scientific and theological work until his death at 89.