Claude Antoine, comte Prieur-Duvernois

As an officer of engineers he presented to the National Assembly[?] in 1790 a Mémoire on the standardization of weights and measures. In 1791 he was returned by the Cote d'Or to the Legislative Assembly, and in 1792 to the Convention. After the revolution of August 20 1792 he was sent on a mission to the army of the Rhine to announce the deposition of Louis XVI, for whose death he voted in the Convention.

In 1793 he was employed in breaking up the Federalist movement in Normandy, but he was arrested by the Federalist authorities of Caen, and only released in July 1793 after the defeat of their forces at Vernon. On August 14, 1793 he became a member of the committee of public safety, where he allied himself closely with Lazare Carnot in the organization of national defence, being especially charged with the provision of the munitions of war.

Under the Directory he sat in the Council of the Five Hundred, retiring after the coup d'etat of 18 Brumaire (November 9, 1799). In 1808 he was created a count of the empire, and in 1811 he retired from the army with the grade of chef de brigade. He was one of the founders of the École Polytechnique, and shared in the establishment of the Institute of France; the adoption of the metric system and the foundation of the bureau of longitude were also due to his efforts. Prieur died at Dijon.

See J Gros, Le Comite de salut public (1893); and E Charavay, Correspondance de Carnot, vol. i., which includes some documents drawn up by Prieur.

This entry was originally from the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.