AMPERE (André-Marie). Scientific autograph manuscript. s.l.n - Lot 2

AMPERE (André-Marie). Scientific autograph manuscript. s.l.n.d. [Paris, 1809-1828]. 3 pp. in small folio format. A fascinating manuscript. Fragment of a physics/mechanics course rich in calculations. He discusses driving forces and friction. "If there were fixed points attracting and repelling the center of gravity would move by virtue of their forces as if they were applied to it. Mutual action never does anything about it, when not taking place by the effect of a machine which would establish unequal virtual speeds, it results on bodies then two by two equal and opposite driving forces. [...] This is what happens in the case of frictional resistance & always a decrease in living forces. But it is this diminution [of] the living force produced in the opposite direction by resistances, friction, & it is that which passes into the fluid, which is used to bend or break the asperities of the rubbing surfaces [...]". André-Marie Ampère, a scientist from Lyon born in 1775, discovered mathematics at a very early age, and contributed to the development of the mathematization of physics. He was responsible for major discoveries in electromagnetism, and developed a vocabulary specific to the field of electricity... The ampere, the unit of electric current, was named after him. He died in Marseille in 1836. Slight loss of paper due to acidity of the ink.