Great inventors: PIERRE VERNIER

French mathematician, engineer and inventor.

born c. 1580, Ornans, (Franche-Comte), was in the Austro-Spanish Empire of the Hapsburgs, now in France
died September 14, 1637, Ornans

French mathematician and government official
who is best remembered for his invention of the vernier caliper,
an instrument for making accurate linear measurements.
This instrument is still in use in most machine shops around the world.

Taught by his scientist-father, Claude Vernier,
he developed an early interest in measuring instruments.
During his adult years, however, science was for him primarily an avocation.
He held various positions with the government of Spain and
then became commandant of the Castle of Ornans in France
and later director general of the treasury in Bourgogne.

In La Construction, l’usage, et les propriétés du quadrant nouveau de mathématiques
(1631; “The Construction, Uses, and Properties of a New Mathematical Quadrant”),
he described his new measuring instrument. The book also contained a trigonometry table
for sines and a method for deriving the angles of a triangle from known measurements
of its sides.

Source: Encyclopedia Britannica
Which I have augmented.

Publications:
La Construction, l’usage, et les propriétés du quadrant nouveau de mathématiques.

On-line book:
http://books.google.com/books?id=05Q5AAAAcAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=inauthor:Pierre+Vernier+quadrant&hl=fr#v=onepage&q=&f=false

Education
    Schooling: No University
    At an early age he studied the writings of contemporary scientists
    and learned how measuring instruments worked. He was particularly
    attentive to the works of Clavius and Brahe. His father's inclination
    toward mathematics gave Vernier a solid instruction and initiated him
    to their applications.

Religion
    Affiliation: Catholic (by assumption)

Scientific Disciplines
    Primary: Engineering, Instrumentation
    With his father he made a map of the Franche-Comté area. His reading of the works of Nunez,
    Clavius, and Brahe and his experience in surveying with his father prompted him to seek
    a new way of reading off the angles on surveying instruments.
    The Vernier scale improved the work of Nunez, Clavius, and Curtius by replacing a series
    of static scales with a mobile concentric segment. It was not until the start of the eighteenth
    century that technology caught up with Vernier's scale and the vernier began to be used. Vernier's
    name was not associated with his invention until the middle of the century.

Means of Support
    Primary: Engineering, Government
    He worked as a military engineer for the Hapsburgs.
    By 1622 he was already a tax official for Dole and Besancon. In 1622 he had acquired
    a reputation as an excellent engineer and received the position as conseiller et
    général des monnaies for the Count of Burgundy. He held this position until his death
    in 1638. In the same year he was named capitain of the chateau d'Ornans, a position
    which he also held until his death. In addition to all these positions he became
    a conseiller du roi. The following year he received the honorary title of citizen
    from the city of Besancon in recognition of his service in placing the city in a state
    of defense from the bands of Ernest von Mansfield.
    After his voyage to Brussels to present his invention to Isabelle-Claire-Eugenie,
    the infanta of Spain, he returned to the Franche-Comté (1631) and spent the remainder
    of his life working on the fortifications of various cities.

Patronage
    Types: Court Official, Aristrocrat
    From 1622 until his death he held several royal offices. He dedicated his treatise
    on the quadrant to the Archduchess, to whom he presented his invention
    (a copper one made for her) in 1631. It was upon the recommendations of Philippe Chifflet,
    who enjoyed several benefices from the Archduchess, and Ferdinand LeBlanc, colonel of the
    regiment of Amont, that Vernier undertook his voyage to Brussels to present his invention
    to the Hapsburg court.

Technological Involvement
    Types: Cartography, Military Engineering, Instruments, Architecture
    Vernier replaced the series of static scales with a mobile concentric segment.
    This scale was not attributed to him until the middle of the eighteenth century.
    He designed a building in Dole.
    See also above.

Scientific Societies
    Memberships: None