Charles Augustin de Coulomb :: biographies bio

Charles Augustin Coulomb was born on June 14th, 1736 in Angoulà ªme, France. Henry Coulomb, Charles' father, had a military career, but left that for the government. His mother, Catherine Bajet, was related to a very wealthy family, the de Sà ©nac's. Many say that Henry Coulomb got caught up in some financial mishaps which led to him losing most all of his money. During Coulomb's younger years his family moved from Angoulà ªme on to Paris. Here, Charles attended many lectures at the College Mazarin and also the College de France. His mom wanted him to be a medical doctor, but on the contrary, Charles wanted to go on and study mathematics. Since Charles disobeyed his mother, he was disowned and was forced to stay with his father over in Montpellier. During his stay he joined the second royal scientific society in France known as the scientific circle. Here he read many papers on mathematics and astronomy. It was a shame that he had no money to purchase a home of his own and continu e his scientific studies, but eventually he came to be a military engineer. He joined the military school at Mà ©zià ¨res in 1760. Here he formed many friendships which would later be important for his scientific work. Charles Bossut, his teacher at Mà ©zià ¨res and Jean Charles Borda where among them. After spending nearly nine years in Martinique as an engineer of the military Charles returned to France mostly due to ill health. In 1781 he entered the French Academy of Sciences where he was a part of the administration of waters and fountains, the reform of hospitals and the system of weights and measures. He was able to publish his paper in 1787 where he proved his famous Coulombs Law. Soon came the outbreak of the French Revolution and Charles decided to retire to a small cottage in Blois. Here he was able to devote his time to