THE

NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

I

SCIENCE AND WAR1

GEORGE ELLERY HALE

T

SCIENCE UNDER NAPOLEON

HIS is by no means the first war in which men of science

have been called from their customary researches to solve military problems. For early examples we might go back to the Greeks, and cite illustrations from the conquests of Alexander the Great or the reputed exploits of Archimedes at the siege of Syracuse. But a more striking and illuminating example, of great significance because of the emphasis laid on the national importance of science and research by the leaders of France, may be taken from the history of the French Revolution and the life of Napoleon Bonaparte.

At the period of the French Revolution the Paris Academy of Sciences occupied an unrivalled position in Europe. Composed of the leaders of science in every field, it was therefore prepared to deal with the heavy problems which grow out of a great emergency. When the Convention decided to raise a large army to resist invasion and stamp out civil war, equip

1 For the material used in the first half of this Chapter the writer is chiefly indebted to Maindron's L'Académie des Sciences and to the Presidential address of M. Guignard at the last annual meeting of the Academy (Comptes Rendus, December 22, 1919).

ment of all kinds was lacking. Steel, nitrates and many necessary raw materials were cut off by the blockade, and the nation was thrown upon its own resources.

In this critical situation the Committee of Public Safety appealed to the members of the Academy and their assistants. A chateau at Meudon was placed at their disposal, together with the adjoining park for experimental purposes. Aided by Vandermonde and Berthollet, Monge discovered the process of manufacturing steel and making guns. Fourcroy succeeded in separating copper from bell metal. Vandermonde was placed in charge of the manufacture of rifles, swords, and bayonets. Arms were soon available, but powder was so scarce that Hoche, in command of the army of the Sambre and Meuse, was compelled to retreat for lack of sufficient supply. But the chemists were equal to the emergency, and nitrates were produced from many sources, the former slow methods of manufacturing explosives were replaced by new ones and in a short time a single factory was turning out powder at the then extraordinary rate of 30,000 pounds per day. Potash, formerly imported from Spain, was also cut off, but a supply was obtained from the ashes of plants. New methods were devised for the rapid tanning of leather, the manufacture of paper, and scores of other products. Even more striking to the popular imagination was the development of the "telegraph" or long distance signaling device of the Abbe Claude Chappe and the war balloon of Guyton de Morveau. If to the unthinking all these results of science seemed to be creations of the moment, those who paused to reflect saw their origin in the decades of research that preceded the Revolution and reached their height in Lavoisier, who fell a victim to the guillotine.

In the events thus briefly sketched we have an exact parallel to the experiences of the present war, which once more forced national leaders when confronted by critical problems, to seek at the last moment the aid of science. A much more enlightened appreciation of the value of science to the state was shown by Napoleon Bonaparte, whose relations with the Paris Acad

emy of Sciences are of special interest at a time when an equal grasp by our own Government of the possibilities of research, embodied in concrete form and applied to national advancement, would bring a great return.

The brilliant strategy displayed in his Italian campaign, and the attitude which he assumed toward the men of science of the conquered territory, led to Napoleon's election as a member of the National Institute of France on December 25, 1797. In his letter of acceptance he remarks:

'The truest conquests, the only ones that give rise to no regrets, are those gained over ignorance.

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'The most honorable as well as the most useful activity of nations is to contribute to the advancement of human knowl

edge.

"The real strength of the French Republic should henceforth lie in its determination to possess every new idea, without a single exception."

Entering at once upon his duties, Napoleon took part with Borda and Coulomb the physicists, Laplace the astronomer, and other members in the examination of devices, some of them of a military nature, submitted for the consideration of the Institute. But his belief in the utilization by the state of the services of men of science was most strikingly demonstrated in the organization of his expedition to Egypt. In addition to the military and naval contingents, he took with him a scientific commission, comprising many of the most distinguished scholars of France. The long list of members includes mathematicians, physicists, astronomers, chemists, engineers, geologists and mineralogists, botanists, zoologists, surgeons, pharmacists, political economists, archeologists, architects, painters, and many others. Less than a month after his arrival in Cairo, Napoleon established the Institute of Egypt, modeled after the Institute of France, with which it was in close correspondence. As Vice-President of the Institute of Egypt, and in constant attendance at its meetings, Napoleon called for the appointment of committee after committee, to

report on the best means of baking bread for the army, the discovery of a substitute for hops needed in the manufacture of beer, the best method of purifying the water of the Nile, the relative efficiency of wind-mills and water-mills, the possibility of manufacturing powder in Egypt. By no means forgetful of the wider interests of science and the arts, Napoleon secured the appointment of a committee to report on the feasibility of establishing an astronomical observatory in Egypt, and permanently preserved, in the magnificent volumes of the Description de l'Egypt, the exhaustive studies of the temples and antiquities made by his architects and archeologists. It is interesting to remember that it was Napoleon who announced to the National Institute, a few days after his return to Paris, that he had given orders to bring to France the celebrated Rosetta Stone, with its tri-lingual inscription, which enabled Champollion some years later to decipher the Egyptian hieroglyphs. Thus the title "Le membre de l'Institut, Général en chef," invariably used by Napoleon throughout his Egyptian campaign, was fairly descriptive of his double service. Indeed, when we recall the early collapse of that ill-fated expedition, we cannot fail to recognize that his contribution to science and the arts as Member of the Institute was far more enduring than his initial military success as Commander in Chief at the Battle of the Pyramids.

During the triumphs of his subsequent career Napoleon gave strong support to the National Institute of France, which then attained a brilliancy of success and achievement without a parallel in the history of science. In 1800, as First Consul, Napoleon presided over the meetings of its Class of Physical and Mathematical Sciences (corresponding to the present Academy of Sciences), and after listening to an address by Volta on his electrical researches, proposed that a medal be awarded him for his discoveries, which was done without delay. Soon afterwards, deeply impressed by the great possibilities which he keenly perceived to lie in the future development of similar researches, Napoleon established a medal