He did original research, including studies of the production of light by electrical discharges through low-pressure air, in which field he made discoveries that were simultaneous with, but independent of, those of the Englishman Francis Hauksbee (1666–1713).
[9] His lectures proved very popular: in 1722, he presented a series of experiments before the young King of France, Louis XV.
In 1709, he published Expériences de Physique (Physics Experiments),[10] a book presenting his demonstrations on magnetism, light and colors, hydrostatics, the properties of air, and other subjects.
He was an early French advocate of Isaac Newton's findings in optics: in the second (and subsequent) editions of his Expériences, he abandoned the then current theory of color and instead advocated Newton’s theory that white light was a mixture of lights of various colors.
Among France's university professors, the belief prevailed that understanding of nature could be reached with certainty only by deductive logic since induction from experiment could not provide certainty; therefore, experiments merely served to confirm the conclusions of reasoned arguments about nature.