Jacques Louis, Comte de Bournon
| Jacques-Louis, Comte de Bournon | |
|---|---|
| Born | January 21, 1751 Metz, France |
| Died | August 24, 1824 (aged 73) Versailles, France |
| Citizenship | French |
| Fields | Mineralogy |
| Institutions | United Kingdom, France |
| Known for | work on meteorites, description of Bournonite |
Jacques-Louis, Comte de Bournon FRS, FGS (January 21, 1751 – 24 August 1825) was a French soldier and mineralogist who came to England after the French Revolution. He gained prominence in the scientific community, being elected a fellow of the Royal Society and was a founding member of the Geological Society before returning to France after the Bourbon Restoration.
The eldest of four children, Jacques-Louis, Comte de Bournon was born in Metz on January 21, 1751. His father was Jacques de Bournon, the Seigneur of Retonfey and Gras and his mother was Marie-Anne Martinet of Nibouville. His interest in geology began with his father's cabinet of minerals and expanded as he travelled extensively in his youth. He began studying crystallography under Jean-Baptiste L. Romé de l'Isle in Paris.
He became an officer in the Regiment de Toul; his military career prospered and he eventually reached the rank of lieutenant which found him serving as artillery captain during the French Revolution at the garrison of Grenoble in 1789.
In 1801, whilst working with Edward Charles Howard, he was the first to describe the silicate minerals, sulphides, magnetic metal grains, globules and fine-grained matrices found in meteorites and was one of the first French scholars to become convinced of the extraterrestrial origins of meteorites at a time when most scientists accepted that they originated from the Moon. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1802.
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