Editing Gaspard Monge (section)

== Career ==

=== 1764-1818 ===
Those studying at the officer school were exclusively drawn from the aristocracy, so he was not allowed admission to the institution itself. His manual skill was highly regarded, but his mathematical skills were not made use of. Nevertheless, he worked on the development of his ideas in his spare time. At this time he came to contact with [[Charles Bossut]], the professor of mathematics at the École Royale du Génie. "I was a thousand times tempted," he said long afterwards, "to tear up my drawings in disgust at the esteem in which they were held, as if I had been good for nothing better."<ref name=EB1911/>

After a year at the École Royale, Monge was asked to produce a plan for a fortification in such a way as to optimise its defensive arrangement. There was an established method for doing this which involved lengthy calculations but Monge devised a way of solving the problems by using drawings. At first his solution was not accepted, since it had not taken the time judged to be necessary, but upon examination the value of the work was recognised,<ref name=EB1911/> and Monge's exceptional abilities were recognised.

After Bossut left the École Royale du Génie, Monge took his place in January 1769, and in 1770 he was also appointed instructor in experimental physics.<ref name="StA"/>

In 1777, Monge married Cathérine Huart, who owned a [[Forge|forge]]. This led Monge to develop an interest in [[metallurgy]]. In 1780 he became a member of the [[French Academy of Sciences]]; his friendship with chemist [[Claude Louis Berthollet|C. L. Berthollet]] began at this time.<ref name=EB1911/> In 1783, after leaving Mézières, he was, on the death of [[Étienne Bézout|É. Bézout]], appointed examiner of naval candidates.<ref name=EB1911/> Although pressed by the minister to prepare a complete course of mathematics, he declined to do so on the grounds that this would deprive Mme Bézout of her only income, that from the sale of the [[textbook]]s written by her late husband.<ref name=EB1911/> In 1786 he wrote and published his ''Traité élémentaire de la statique''.<ref name=EB1911/>

===1789-1818===
[[File:Perelachaise-Monge-p1000360.jpg|thumb|Monge's bust in [[Le Père Lachaise Cemetery]] in Paris]]
The [[French Revolution]] completely changed the course of Monge's career. He was a strong supporter of the Revolution, and in 1792, on the creation by the [[Legislative Assembly (France)|Legislative Assembly]] of an executive council, Monge accepted the office of [[List of Naval Ministers of France|Minister of the Navy]],<ref name=EB1911/> and held this office from 10 August 1792 to 10 April 1793, when he resigned.<ref name="StA"/> When the [[Committee of Public Safety]] made an appeal to the academics to assist in the defence of the republic, he applied himself wholly to these operations, and distinguished himself by his energy, writing the ''Description Le l'art de Fabriquer Les canons'' and ''Avis aux ouvriers en fer sur la fabrication de l'acier''.<ref name=EB1911/>

He took a very active part in the measures for the establishment of the [[Ecole Normale Superieure|Ecole Normale]] (which existed only during the first four months of the year 1795), and of the school for public works, afterwards the [[École Polytechnique]], and was at each of them professor for descriptive geometry.<ref name=EB1911/> ''Géométrie descriptive. Leçons données aux écoles normales'' was published in 1799 from transcriptions of his lectures given in 1795. He later published ''Application de l'analyse à la géométrie'',<ref name=EB1911/> which enlarged on the Lectures.

From May 1796 to October 1797 Monge was in [[Italy]] with C.L. Berthollet and some artists to select the paintings and sculptures being levied from the Italians.<ref name=EB1911/> While there he became friendly with [[Napoleon]]. Upon his return to France, he was appointed as the Director of the [[École Polytechnique]], but early in 1798 he was sent to [[Italy]] on a mission that ended in the establishment of the short-lived [[Roman Republic (18th century)|Roman Republic]].<ref name=EB1911/>

From there Monge joined [[French campaign in Egypt and Syria|Napoleon's expedition to Egypt]], taking part with Berthollet<ref name=EB1911/> in the scientific work of the [[Institut d'Égypte]] and the [[Egyptian Institute of Sciences and Arts]]. They accompanied Napoleon to [[Egypt]], and returned with him in 1799 to France.<ref name=EB1911/> Monge was appointed president of the Egyptian commission, and he resumed his connection with the École Polytechnique.<ref name=EB1911/> His later mathematical papers are published (1794–1816) in the Journal and the Correspondence of the École Polytechnique. On the formation of the [[Sénat conservateur]] he was appointed a member of that body, with an ample provision and the title of count of [[Pelusium]]<ref name=EB1911/> (Comte de Péluse), and he became the Senate conservateur's president during 1806–7. Then on the fall of Napoleon he had all of his honours taken away, and he was even excluded from the list of members of the reconstituted Institute.<ref name=EB1911/>

Napoleon Bonaparte stated Monge was an [[atheism|atheist]].<ref>"[[Napoleon]] replies: "How comes it, then, that [[Laplace]] was an atheist? At the Institute neither he nor [[Monge]], nor [[Berthollet]], nor [[Lagrange]] believed in God. But they did not like to say so." Baron [[Gaspard Gourgaud]], ''Talks of Napoleon at St. Helena with General Baron Gourgaud'' (1904), page 274.</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=The view from planet Earth: man looks at the cosmos|year=1983|publisher=Quill|isbn=9780688014797|page=164|author=Vincent Cronin|quote=Yet, sailing to Egypt, he had lain on deck, asking his scientists whether the planets were inhabited, how old the Earth was, and whether it would perish by fire or by flood. Many, like his friend Gaspard Monge, the first man to liquefy a gas, were atheists.}}<!--|access-date=30 July 1818 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BshFAAAAcAAJ&q=%22Saint-Thomas-d%27Aquin%22+monge&pg=PA5 |title = Éloge funèbre de M. Monge, comte de Peluze ... Mort le 28 juillet 1818: Précédé d'une notice sur la vie et les ouvrages de cet homme célèbre|last1 = Guyon|first1 = N.|year = 1818}}--></ref> His remains were first interred in a [[Gaspard Monge's mausoleum|mausoleum]] in [[Le Père Lachaise Cemetery]] in Paris and later transferred to the [[Panthéon, Paris|Panthéon in Paris]].

A [//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/35/GaspardMongeStatueBeaune.jpg statue] portraying him was erected in Beaune in 1849. Monge's name is one of the [[List of the 72 names on the Eiffel Tower|72 names inscribed on the base of the Eiffel Tower]].

Since 4 November 1992 the ''[[Marine Nationale]]'' operate the [[Missile Range Instrumentation Ship|MRIS]] [[French ship Monge (A601)|''Monge'']], named after him.