Pierre Jacotot - Cours de Physique Expérimentale et de Chimie, à l'usage des Ecoles Centrales - 1801

JACOTOT (Pierre). ‘Cours de Physique Expérimentale et de Chimie, à l'usage des Ecoles Centrales et spécialement de l'Ecole Centrale de la Côte d'Or’.
Paris, Richard, Caille & Ranvier, and in Dijon, at Coquet, Year IX.
2 volumes in 2 octavo bindings. XXVI. 387 pages + 2 sheets. XVI. 403 pages. Half sheepskin, adorned smooth spine (binding of the time, some use marks). Without the atlas.
First edition. This work, based on experimentation and including the great scientific discoveries of the late 18th century (Lavoisier, Coulomb, etc...), marked a turning point in the teaching of science in France. It was intended for the Centrale Schools, institutions created by the Convention upon a proposal made by Lakanal in 1795, where the emphasis was on scientific education rather than on classical teaching dominated by Latin. During the same year, the Lakanal decree was completed by the decision to create a Centrale School for each French department.
Pierre Jacotot, a French physicist born in Dijon in 1755, who died there in 1821, was among the scientists performing duties at the Ecole Polytechnique when it was founded in 1794. When the Centrale Schools were founded in 1795, he took over the management of the Centrale School of Dijon. In 1808 he was appointed chief education officer of the Dijon Academy and he founded an observatory and a laboratory of physics and chemistry in Dijon in 1815.