| Chapter 1: | A Brief Introductory Survey of Dupin’s Life |
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in Varzy were somewhat limited. The small town had had a college for the offspring of the bourgeoisie, but this establishment had been closed, and education throughout France was in a pretty poor state. After his mother’s lessons, young Dupin was entrusted to a cleric, the priest of Menou, Abbé Bougon, and a few months later, he was sent to Orléans for the classes of Abbé Genty, word of whose reputation had reached the Dupin family. This man was not very perceptive, and his first contact with his young pupil was unfortunate: he gave Dupin to understand that he was too young to study geometry. However, Dupin was to prove to his future teacher that he was well able to follow the courses at the school, and he proceeded to demonstrate a rather difficult theorem.
Overcoming all obstacles, Dupin entered the Ecole polytechnique in 1801, placed second on the list of successful candidates. Among the rest were two other notable savants, the physicist Pierre-Louis Dulong (1785 to 1838) and the geometer Olry Terquem, the future editor of the Nouvelles annales de mathématiques (New annals of mathematics). Graduating from the Ecole polytechnique in 1803, Dupin proceeded to the Ecole du génie maritime1 after participating with some of his Polytechnique schoolmates in the construction in front of the Invalides of a landing craft called Polytechnique—destined, as they hoped, for the invasion of England.
After his time at the new school (1803–1805), the young engineer was sent to various ports, Genoa and Antwerp among them, but his first really important mission was to Corfu, which was restored to France with the other Ionian Islands by the Treaty of Tilsit (1807). Dupin arrived on the island on 23 February 1808, having narrowly escaped death at sea.
At Corfu, his official function was to be a naval construction engineer, but his true character began to emerge. In addition to being a mathematician and physicist, the educator in him revealed itself; he was to remain an educator until the end of his days. In the realm of engineering, he began to study the flexibility of wood and the strength of materials, but he also participated in the foundation of the Ionian Academy. Interestingly, very little mention is made in histories of the role of the French in establishing education in Corfu, the launching of the Ionian Academy