Born at Béaune in Burgundy, 1746; died in Paris, 1818.
Early in life he attained extraordinary knowledge in mathematics,
chemistry and geometry. At the age of sixteen he made a plan of his
native town with only the aid of geometrical instruments he had
manufactured himself. This plan was exhibited in the Hôtel de Ville of
Béaune, and was there seen by a distinguished engineering officer, who
invited its creator to enter the famous College of Mézières. This offer
was accepted; Mouge became Professor of Mathematics in this College,
and was admitted to the Academy of Sciences in 1780. He retained this
post until the Revolution closed both College and Academy.
In 1792 Mouge was appointed Minister of Marine; he held this position
for a year--from August 11, 1792, to August 12, 1793.
At this moment the indignation of Europe against France had reached
its height; the whole continent was prepared to attack her. The French
Government, without money and without credit, required fourteen
armies--and they obtained them. A million men were at their disposal,
but these men were unarmed. Until this period all war material, iron,
bronze, steel, even gunpowder had been supplied from abroad; but
importation had now ceased. Mouge now showed the resources of his
genius; he wrote, “All we require to aid the triumphs of our soldiers,
all we formerly asked for from the stranger is concealed in our
soil--it remains only for us to pluck it out.”
He placed himself at the head of a body of metallurgists, mechanics
and chemists, and directed night and day the manufacture of arms and
explosives. Bells were turned into cannon, old iron hardened into
steel, and saltpetre extracted from the simplest materials. An immense
quantity of powder filled the magazines, and cannons and other weapons
were cast or forged in enormous quantities.
These great efforts ended, Mouge determined to open, at his own
expense, a house where he might entertain and instruct a number of
young men destined for the artillery of engineers. This establishment
was the nucleus from which the _École Polytechnique_ sprang.
In 1792, when Mouge was Minister of Marine, he received with kindness a
young artillery officer who was out of employment. This same artillery
officer, four years later, became the conqueror of Italy.
Mouge received an order to proceed to Italy to value, collect, and
attempt to preserve, those works of Italian art it was proposed to
remove to France. He received the warmest greeting from Bonaparte, who
gave him every token of friendship.
Mouge was despatched by Bonaparte in 1797 to Rome--when the Pope was
forced to fly and the Roman Republic established--with the order to
bring statues and pictures from the Vatican to Paris.
He accompanied Napoleon to Egypt, together with many other men of
science, to bring back the spoils of that country, in the same way
they had removed those of ancient Rome. While the French occupation
of Egypt continued, Mouge made many discoveries there, and explored
the Temples of the Nile, travelling as far as the Second Cataract. He
followed Bonaparte to Syria, and was his constant companion during that
disastrous expedition. When Napoleon quitted Egypt surreptitiously for
France, August 22, 1799, Mouge was one of the passengers on board the
small frigate which carried General Bonaparte and his destiny.
On his return to France, Mouge continued his scientific work. After the
establishment of the Empire, he was appointed Governor and Director of
the _École Polytechnique_, Senator, and given the title of Comte
de Peluse. He retained these honours until the second Restoration, when
Louis XVIII. erased his name from the list of the Institute, besides
depriving him of the Directorship of the _Polytechnique_, which he
(Mouge) had founded.
Mouge felt this deprivation deeply, and the last three years of his
life were passed in melancholy depression and regret. He died in 1818,
at the age of seventy-two.