Belidor, Bernard Forest de

Belidor, Bernard Forest de (bernär' fôre' du bālēdôr') [key], 1693–1761, French engineer. He wrote numerous books dealing with mathematics, artillery, and hydraulic, civil, and military engineering. One of his engineering works, a manual of rules and tables, was reprinted until 1830. His four-volume Architecture hydraulique (1737–53) was the first work of its kind to apply integral calculus to practical problems; its influence for the next hundred years was international in scope.

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2007, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.

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