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Pierre Prevost (French:[pʁevo]; 3 March 1751 – 8 April 1839) was a Genevanphilosopher andphysicist. In 1791 he explainedPictet's experiment by arguing that all bodiesradiate heat, no matter how hot or cold they are.[1]
Son of aProtestantclergyman inGeneva in theRepublic of Geneva, he was born in that city and was educated for a clerical career. However, he abandoned it for law, and this too he quickly deserted to devote himself to education and to travelling. He became close friends withJean Jacques Rousseau and, a little later, withDugald Stewart, having previously distinguished himself as a translator of and commentator onEuripides.
Frederick II of Prussia secured him in 1780 as professor of philosophy and made him member of theAkademie der Wissenschaften in Berlin. He there became acquainted withJoseph Louis Lagrange and was thus led to turn his attention tophysical science.
After some years spent onpolitical economy and on the principles of thefine arts (in connection with which he wrote, for theBerlin Memoirs, a remarkable dissertation on poetry) he returned to Geneva and began his work onmagnetism and on heat. Interrupted occasionally in his studies by political duties in which he was often called to the front, he remained professor of philosophy at Geneva until he was called in 1810 to the chair of physics.
He died at Geneva in 1839.
Prévost published much onphilology, philosophy, and political economy, but he will be remembered mainly for having published, with additions of his own, theTraité de physique byGeorges-Louis Le Sage, and for his enunciation of the law of exchange inradiation.
His scientific publications includedDe l'Origine des forces magnetiques,[2]Mémoire sur l'Equilibre du feu,[1]Recherches physico-mecaniques sur la chaleur,[3] andEssai sur le calorique rayonnant.[4]
Pierre Prévost.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Prévost, Pierre".Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
