The American Cyclopædia (1879)/Camus, Charles Étienne Louis

CAMUS, Charles Étienne Louis, a French mathematician and mechanician, born at Crécy-en-Brie, Aug. 25, 1699, died in Paris in 1768. He was a professor of geometry and examiner in the schools of engineering and artillery in Paris. In 1736 he accompanied Maupertuis and Clairaut in their expedition to Lapland to measure a degree of the meridian there, and was afterward employed in the same work between Paris and Amiens. His papers in the memoirs of the academy are generally on mechanical subjects, and are of great value. He also published a Cours de mathématiques (4 vols. 8vo, Paris, 1749), and Opérations faites pour mesurer le degré de méridienne entre Paris et Amiens (8vo, 1757). In 1760 he became perpetual secretary of the academy of architecture.