Reaumur

Reaumur, Rene Antoine Febchault de (1683-1757), scientist, was born at La Rochelle, and was educated chiefly by Jesuits. He first wrote upon mathematics, but turned his attention to natural philosophy and natural history, and produced various important treatises on the manufacture of porcelain, the silk of spiders, the tinning of sheet-iron, etc., and made a great improvement in the thermometer, which has been named after him. His valuable History of Insects (1734-42) was left unfinished by him.