Lévy, Maurice

(b. Ribeauvillé, France, 28 February 1838; d. Paris, France, 30 September 1910),

mathematics, engineering.

Maurice Lévy had a distinguished career as a practicing engineer, teacher, and researcher. He studied at the École Polytechnique from 1856 to 1858 and at the École des Ponts et Chaussées. After graduating he served for several years in the provinces and continued his studies. In 1867 he was awarded the docteur ès sciences and in 1872 was assigned to the navigation service of the Seine in the region of Paris. In 1880 he became chief government civil engineer and, in 1885, inspector general. At the same time Lévy pursued an academic career. From 1862 to 1883 he served as répétiteur in mechanics at the École Polytechnique. In 1875 he was appointed professor of applied mechanics at the École Centrale des Arts et Manufactures, and in 1885 he became professor of analytic and celestial mechanics at the Collège de France. Lévy was elected to the Académie des Sciences in 1883 and served as president of the Société Philomatique in 1880.

Lévy’s research ranged over projective and differential geometry, mechanics, Kinematics, hydraulics, and hydrodynamics. Of his two theses, the first, influenced by the work of Gabriel Lamé, deals with orthogonal curvilinear coordinates; the second is on the theory and application of liquid motion. He often returned to the question of elasticity, and his writings on the subject include a book published in 1873. His other works include theoretical treatises on energy and hydrodynamics, as well as more practical ones on boat propulsion.

Lévy considered his most significant work to be that on graphical statics (1874), which was an attempt to apply the methods of projective geometry, particularly the theory of geometric transformations, to problems of statics. It was directed toward engineers and was very popular, going through three editions.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

I. Orginal Works. A complete bibliography is in Poggendorff, III, 804-805; IV, 876-877; and V, 737. Lévy’s two these are “Sur une transformation des coordonnées curvilignes orthogonales, et sur les coordonnées curvilignes comprenant une famille quelconque de surfaces du second ordre,” in Journal de l’École polytechnique, 26 (1870), 157-200; and Essai théorique et appliqué sur le mouvement des liquides, published separately (Paris, 1867). His books are Étude d’un système de barrage mobile (Paris, 1873); Application de la théorie mathématique de l’elasticité à l’etude de systèmes articulés (Paris, 1873); La statique graphique et ses applications aux constructions, with atlas (Paris, 1874; 2nd ed., 4 vols., Paris, 1886-1888; 3rd ed., 1913-1918); Sur le principe d’énergie (Paris, 1890), written with G. Pavie; Étude des moyens mécanique et électrique de traction des bateaux., Partie I: Halage funiculaire (Paris, 1894); Théorie des marées(Paris, 1898); and Éléments de cinématique et de mécanique (Paris, 1902).

II. Secondary Literature There is very little available beyond the article in La grande encyclopédie, XXII, 148; and the obituary by Émile Picard in Comptes rendus hebdomadaires des séances de l’Académie des sciences, 151 (1910), 603-606.

Elaine Koppelman