Mr. Philibert Maurice d'Ocagne

A French engineer and mathematician, very few biographical details are available. His scientific personality soon fell into oblivion, leaving only a few milestones of his professional life registered, embodied in various engineering positions and senior teachers in French public life, which witness preparation and intellectual capacity. In 1885 he joined the French corps of engineers of bridges and roads (Corps de Ponts et Chauss?es) and moved to Cherbourg, in whose area he spent several years working on water projects. In 1894 he occupied a chair at the ?cole nationale des ponts et Chauss?es, and in 1901 he was appointed director of the French mapping service. In 1912 he was appointed professor at the ?cole polytechnique. In 1920 he became the general inspector of roads and bridges in France. In 1922 he joined the prestigious Acad?mie des Sciences, which awarded him twice before, once in 1892 (Leconte Award) for his work on nomograf?a and another in 1894 (prize Dalmonte), for his mathematical work. His main interest focused on mechanical aids to perform complex mathematical calculations, a field in which he was a recognized expert. Within this field, his most personal and innovative contributions took the form of graphical methods, whose multiplicity systematized and clarified, especially and was assigned the name nomograf?a or calculation by means of nomograms. He published the book Cours de G?om?trie descriptive et de G?om?trie infinit?simale in 1896, and in 1899 he published Trait? de Nomographie. Another of his works, Le calcul simplified, is the most systematic and comprehensive catalog of all types of resources used throughout history to the facilitation of mathematical calculations to the end of first quarter of the twentieth century when the great revolution that began in this area to assume the major mechanical calculating machines, and especially electronics.