Adrien-Quentin, abbé BUÉE (1748-1826), mathematician,... - Lot 16 - Conan Belleville Hôtel d'Ainay

Lot 16
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Adrien-Quentin, abbé BUÉE (1748-1826), mathematician,... - Lot 16 - Conan Belleville Hôtel d'Ainay
Adrien-Quentin, abbé BUÉE (1748-1826), mathematician, author of works on complex numbers. Autograph letter (draft) to Chevalier de Sade [Louis de Sade (1753-1832)]. 3 ½ pp. in-4. Circa 1815. Rare scientific letter on Laplace's theories, in response to the mailing of the second volume of the Tydologie ou la science des marées, by Chevalier de Sade (London, 1810-1813). He explains to him the reason why he will not make a critical examination of the second volume as he did for the first. "It is necessary to explain to you the cause of my perplexities. You have a faith in algebra that I do not share with you. You seem to attribute to Mr. Laplace's formulas a virtue that I do not believe in. These formulas are admirable, no doubt; but the more one delves into them, the less one hears of them, and the more one becomes convinced that their application is always very difficult and often impossible. One can only rely on those which have undergone the always formidable test of constant experience. The reason for this is that in order to apply them, one must make a very large number of hypotheses similar to those required by the rule of false position, and that it is always very difficult to be sure of the correctness of these hypotheses and of the means of correcting them, if, as almost always happens, they are not correct. You propose many tables; you insist strongly on their advantages. The history of all sciences shows that tables relating to a science that is too little advanced are rather an obstacle to its further advancement than a means of accelerating it. Tables are in fact only connections of facts. If in these connections only one fact is missing, they are false, and if one starts from these false connections to go forward, the more one walks, the more one deviates from the truth. As all the known methods have this defect, you feel, sir, that if I had wanted to go into all the necessary details on those that you propose, 20 volumes of the size of yours would not have sufficed [] ". Attached is a note signed "AB" by an unidentified author, late 18th-early 19th century, 2 pp. in-8, entitled: "Note historique sur l'aiguille courbe à manche" (Historical note on the curved needle with a handle), concluding: "It seems that the needle is not the invention of Chappe or of Mr. Deschamps and that its invention must be reported to casa major Laplace".
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