Charles Bossut

Bossut was taught by d’Alembert, and also encouraged by Clairaut; he collaborated with d’Alembert on mathematical entries for Diderot’s Encyclopédie. Monge, Borda and Coulomb were among his students at the engineering school at Mézières (Monge in particular his protégé). Condorcet worked closely with him, and may have helped get him appointed to a newly-created chair in hydrodynamics, one of his specialisms — research on water-resistance he did with Condorcet and d’Alembert was applied by Fulton, whose steam-boat demonstration on the Seine involved Bossut and others being towed behind — a great success.