Charles Laisant
| Charles-Ange Laisant | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
1 November 1841 Indre, France |
| Died | 5 May 1920 (aged 78) |
| Residence | France |
| Fields | Mathematics |
Charles-Ange Laisant (1 November 1841 – 5 May 1920), French politician and mathematician, was born at Indre, near Nantes on 1 November 1841, and was educated at the École Polytechnique as a military engineer.
He defended the fort of Issy at the Siege of Paris, and served in Corsica and in Algeria in 1873. In 1876 he resigned his commission to enter the Chamber as deputy for Nantes in the republican interest, and in 1879 he became director of the Le Petit Parisien. For alleged libel on General Courtot de Cissey in this paper he was heavily fined.
In the Chamber he spoke chiefly on army questions; and was chairman of a commission appointed to consider army legislation, resigning in 1887 on the refusal of the Chamber to sanction the abolition of exemptions of any kind. He then became an adherent of the revisionist policy of General Boulanger and a member of the League of Patriots. Laisant published two political pamphlets, Pourquoi et comment je suis Boulangiste (1887) and L'Anarchie bourgeoise (1887). He was elected Boulangist deputy for the 18th Parisian arrondissement in 1889.
Laisant did not seek re-election in 1893, but devoted himself thenceforward to mathematics. He published two works in geometric algebra, Introduction à la Méthode des Quaternions (1881) and Théorie et applications des equipollences (1887). He also co-founded a mathematical journal, L'Intermédiaire des Mathématiciens with Émile Lemoine in 1894, and was in 1888 the president of the Société Mathématique de France. The quaternion textbook was an abridgement of one by Jules Hoüel, and the text on equipollences was based on the work of Giusto Bellavitis.
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