Jean-Sylvain Bailly
Jean -Sylvain Bailly ( born September 15, 1736, in Paris, † November 12, 1793 ibid ) was a French astronomer and the first mayor of Paris. Bailly was known by calculating the orbit of Halley's comet in 1759. He also studied the then four known moons of Jupiter. During the French Revolution he was executed on the guillotine.
Life
The son of a painter operation first painting and poetry, but soon turned to scientific studies and was won by Lacaille for astronomy. After the death of his father Bailly received the post of warden of the Luxembourg Gallery, 1789 he was secretary of the electoral college in Paris, and soon after a deputy of the third estate in the Estates General. On June 3, chosen as President of the National Assembly, he led on June 20 the momentous meeting in the hall of the house ball ( Tennis Court Oath ). After the storming of the Bastille, he was appointed mayor of Paris, but was not a difficult business grew and took accused by the Jacobins royalist sentiments, his dismissal. In the process of the Queen, he appeared as a witness for their innocence, then embarked on an estate in the area of Nantes, but was indicted and forced to keep hidden in Paris by his enemies to him, the agents of Robespierre on a trip taken to Melun to his friend Laplace and dragged to Paris. He was sentenced " as King friend and violent oppressor of the People's Freedom " on November 11, 1793 to death on the guillotine, and executed the following day.
Works
Bailly's main work, " Histoire de l' astronomy " (par. 1775-87, 5 vols, an excerpt 1806, 2 vols ), was largely translated into German. His assertion that science most discoveries owe a bygone people, involved him in a dispute with Voltaire and others and led the " Lettres sur l' origine des sciences " (par. 1777; German, Leipz 1778. ) And the " Lettres sur l' Atlantide de Platon et sur l' ancienne histoire de l' Asie " ( Lond. 1771; engl 1801, 2 vols. ). According to Bailly's death appeared " Essai sur les fables et sur leur histoire " (par. 1799, 2 vols ) and " Mémoires d'un témoin de la révolution " (ibid. 1804, 3 vols; German in the extract of Weyland, Leipz. 1805). See Nourrisson, Trois révolutionnaires: Turgot, Necker, B. (par. 1885).