Claude-Antoine Prieur-Duvernois

Claude Antoine, comte Prieur-Duvernois, commonly known as Prieur de la Côte-d'Or after his native département, to distinguish him from Pierre Louis Prieur (2 December 1763 – 11 August 1832), was a French engineer and a politician during and after the French Revolution.

Born in Auxonne, Côte-d'Or. As an officer of engineers, he presented to the National Constituent Assembly in 1790 a Mémoire on the standardization of weights and measures.

In 1791, the Côte-d'Or re-elected him to the Legislative Assembly, and in 1792 to the National Convention. In 1792, Prieur-Duvernois was sent on a mission to the Army of the Rhine to announce the deposition of King Louis XVI, after having voted in favor of his execution.

In 1793 he served as a representative on mission to survey the ports of Lorient and Dunkirk. He was arrested in Normandy after the fall of the Girondists (June 1793) by the rebel authorities of Caen. He was released in July 1793 after the defeat of their forces at Vernon.

On 14 August 1793, he became a member of the Committee of Public Safety, where he allied himself with Lazare Carnot in the organization of national defence. His role included providing munitions for the troops engaged in the French Revolutionary Wars. Prieur worked closely with prominent scientists in France. The Committee worked with several notable French scientists, including Lagrange, Lamarck, and Vandermonde. Prieur and Carnot advocated the use of observation balloons in war after some experiments in Meudon. This led to their deployment at the Battle of Fleurus.

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