Gaspard Monge Gaspard Monge , Comte de Péluse ( 9 May 1746 – 28 July 1818 ) was a French mathematician , the inventor of descriptive geometry ( the mathematical basis of technical drawing ) , and the father of differential geometry . During the French Revolution he served as the Minister of the Marine , and was involved in the reform of the French educational system , helping to found the École Polytechnique . Early life . Monge was born at Beaune , Côte - d ' Or , the son of a merchant . He was educated at the college of the Oratorians at Beaune . In 1762 he went to the Collège de la Trinité at Lyon , where , one year after he had begun studying , he was made a teacher of physics at the age of just seventeen . After finishing his education in 1764 he returned to Beaune , where he made a large - scale plan of the town , inventing the methods of observation and constructing the necessary instruments ; the plan was presented to the town , and is still preserved in their library . An officer of engineers who saw it wrote to the commandant of the École Royale du Génie at Mézières , recommending Monge to him and he was given a job as a draftsman . Career . Those studying at the school were 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 came to contact with Charles Bossut , the professor of mathematics at the École Royale . " 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 . " 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 recognized , and Monge ' s exceptional abilities were recognized . 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 . In 1777 , Monge married Cathérine Huart , who owned a forge . This caused Monge to develop an interest in metallurgy . In 1780 he became a member of the Académie ; his friendship with C . L . Berthollet began at this time . In 1783 , after leaving Mézières , he was , on the death of É . Bézout , appointed examiner of naval candidates . 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 . In 1786 he wrote and published his " Traité élémentaire de la statique " . 1789 and after . Unsurprisingly 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 of an executive council , Monge accepted the office of Minister of the Marine , and held this office from 10 August 1792 to 10 April 1793 , when he resigned . 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 de l ' art de fabriquer les canons " and " Avis aux ouvriers en fer sur la fabrication de l ' acier " . He took a very active part in the measures for the establishment of the 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 . " Géométrie descriptive . Leçons données aux écoles normales " was published in 1799 from transcriptions of his letures given in 1795 . He later published " Application de l ' analyse à la géométrie " , 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 . While there he became friendly with Napoleon Bonaparte . Upon his return to France , he as 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 . From there Monge joined Napoleon ' s expedition to Egypt , taking part with Berthollet and in the scientific work of the Institut d ' Égypte and Egyptian Institute of Sciences and Arts . They accompanied Bonaparte to Syria , and returned with him in 1798 to France . Monge was appointed president of the Egyptian commission , and he resumed his connection with the École Polytechnique . 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 ( 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 even excluded from the list of members of the reconstituted Institute . On his religious views it was claimed by others that Monge was an atheist . This however has not been corroborated by any statement made by himself . Monge died at Paris on July 28 , 1818 , and his remains were interred in a mausoleum in the Le Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris . His remains was later transferred to the Panthéon in Paris . A portraying him was erected in Beaune in 1849 . Monge ' s name is one of the 72 names inscribed on the base of the Eiffel Tower . Since the 4 November 1992 the " Marine Nationale " operate the MRIS " FS Monge " , named after him .