Bouguer

Bouguer, Pierre, mathematician, was born in 1698 in Brittany. In 1729 he published Essai d'Optique sur la Gradation de la Lumiere, showing the rate at which light is lost in passing through atmosphere. He was then made professor of hydrography at Havre, and succeeded Maupertius as associate geometer at the Academy of Sciences. In 1735 he accompanied Godin, La Condamine, and Jussieu to Peru to measure a degree of the meridian at the equator, and published an account of their labours in Theorie de la Figure de la Terre. He died in Paris in 1758.