Key Points
- The French Jesuit mathematician Claude Dechales (1621–1678) was best remembered for his book Cursus seu mundus mathematicus.Claude Dechales was known for his friendliness and pedagogical competence in the teaching of mathematics.Dechales was sent as a Jesuit missionary to Turkey.
Claude Dechales
The French Jesuit mathematician Claude Dechales (1621–1678) was best remembered for his book Cursus seu mundus mathematicus, a complete course of mathematics, published in Lyons in 1674. Dechales published also several other books, and in one of them—L’ art de naviger demontré par principes & confirmé par plusiers observations tirées de l’experience, published in Paris in 1677, he described a small counting device with a ratchet wheel as input and analog display indicators (see the image below).
Next Up…
- Charles Corliss
- George Farmer
- Juri Diakov
