Louis Necker
Louis Necker de Germany | |
|---|---|
| Born | Error: Invalid birth date for calculating age Geneva |
| Died | July 31, 1804 (aged 73) |
| Occupation(s) | Mathematician, physicist, academic, banker |
| Years active | 1747–circa 1791 |
| Known for | Article on friction for the Encyclopédie; work on electricity and physics; banking career in Paris |
Louis Necker, known as de Germany (31 August 1730 – 31 July 1804), was a mathematician, physicist, academic, and banker originating from Geneva who later worked in Paris. He was the older sibling of Jacques Necker, who served as France's Finance Minister at the beginning of the French Revolution.
Biography
Louis Necker pursued studies in mathematics and physics at the Academy of Geneva, where he completed a philosophical dissertation on electricity in 1747 and obtained a law degree in 1751. He acted as a tutor for noble families visiting Geneva, accompanying them to the University of Turin. Additionally, he oversaw a boarding school for English students operated by his father, Charles Frederick, and held educational roles such as hofmeister with distinguished households.
In 1752, Necker purchased the physics laboratory previously owned by Jean Jallabert. By 1757, he had been appointed to the mathematics professorship and granted an honorary position in Experimental Physics at the Academy of Geneva. As a correspondent member of the Académie royale des sciences, he authored an article on friction for the Encyclopedia. Following his wife's passing in 1759 and a controversy that compelled him to resign in 1761, he joined a Marseille-based trading firm with assistance from his brother and adopted the suffix "de Germany" after their family estate near Rolle. His name was removed from the Corresponding Members list of the Académie des sciences in 1767.
Relocating to Paris in 1770, Necker became affiliated with Banque Girardot as a banker by 1772. He remarried in 1773 and managed substantial interest collections for affluent clients in Utrecht between 1774 and 1778. In 1776, he took over his brother’s role as resident representative for the Republic of Geneva. With Emmanuel Haller's entry into Banque Girardot in 1777, Necker assumed a silent partnership. During this period, he developed a friendship with Benjamin Franklin. Despite Jacques Necker’s removal from his position as royal treasury controller in 1781, it is reported that both brothers received an annual pension amounting to eight million livres.
Amidst the liberal political changes during the French Revolution, Louis returned to Geneva in 1791 following Jacques’s resignation in 1790. The Necker family encountered opposition from émigrés and Swiss Jacobins due to their perceived political affiliations.
His son Jacques (1757–1825), after military service in France and marrying Albertine Necker de Saussure in 1785, pursued an academic career post-Revolution as Professor of Botany at the Academy of Geneva.
Works
- De Electricitate, published in 1747 (in-4°), featured in volume IV of the Recueil de l’Académie (savants étrangers). This work examined the curve along which a sliding object under gravitational force in a vacuum reaches its lowest point in equal time from any initial position, incorporating friction as part of the tension on the rope.
- Article titled « Forces & Frottement » included in volume VII of the Encyclopédie, edited by Diderot and D’Alembert.
Bibliography
- Ferdinand Hoefer, Nouvelle biographie générale, volume 37, Paris, Firmin-Didot, 1863, pages 575–576