A prodigy who invented a water turbine at the age of ten, he worked as an engineer at the École Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées.

He collaborated with Gaspard de Prony on the Dictionnaire des Ponts et Chaussées (Dictionary of Bridges and Highways, 1787).

He wrote on fluids, and in 1798 he published a monograph, Traité analytique de la résistance des solides[1] on beam theory, including possibly its first history, within the topic of strength of materials.

It is not only valuable as containing the total knowledge of that day on the subject, but also by reason of an admirable historical introduction...

Its final publication was delayed till the experiments on elastic bodies, the results of which are here tabulated, were concluded at Havre.