Deaths, aaj 



In Vol. III. p. 335, we announced the death of the cele- 

 brated French aftronomer Borda on the 20th of Febmary 

 !ail in the 64th year of his age. Since that period we have 

 been able to colleft a few more particulars refpefting the 

 lervice rendered by him to the fciences, which will no doubt 

 afford fatisfaiSlion to many of our readers, Charles Borda, 

 formerly Chevalier de Borda, was a Chef d'Efcadre in the 

 Royal Navy under the old French government. He diftin- 

 guiflied himfelf early as an able mathematician, and many 

 proofs of his talents in this refpe£t m.ay be found in the nu- 

 merous and excellent papers which he publifhed in the Me- 

 moirs of the Academy of Sciences. He wrote on different 

 objefts of hydraulics ; on the refiflance of fluids ; on water- 

 wheels and pumps ; on the throwing of bombs ; on the 

 method of determining curved lines ; on the properties of 

 maxima and iniyj'tma ; on the befl method of choofing by lot. 

 In the year 1771 and 1772 he undertook a voyage, by com- 

 mand of the king, with Verdun de la Crenne and Pingre, 

 in the Flora frigate, in which he had the rank of Luufawni 

 de VdiJJ'au, to various parts of Europe, Africa, and America, 

 for the improvement of geography and navigation, and in 

 order to try various nautical infiruments and time-picces- 

 Thefc three navigators afterwards publiflied, in concert, the 

 rcfult of their obfervations, in two volumes quarto, under the 

 title of Voyage fait far Ordre du Roi en 1 77 1 et 1772, &c. 

 in which Borda's fhare was not the Icafl confidcrable. An 

 account of the refult of this expedition may be found alfo in 

 the Memoirs of the Academy of Paris for the year 1773. 

 The public are indebted to him likewifc for the heft: chart 

 of the Canary Iflands, which fcrvcd as a pattern for ihe va- 

 luable chart of thefe iflands publiflied in Spain in 1788. 



In the year 1787 he publifhed his valuable Defer iption et 

 ffage du Ccrcle de Reflexion, in which he revived the re- 

 flefting circle propofcd by Tobias Meyer in 175'^. He was 

 the founder of the firfl fchool for Nautical ArchitcAurc in" 

 France, and drew up a plan of the mode of education to be 



employed 



