ABSTRACT
Arthur Achard was educated in Geneva and Paris and graduated in 1858 as a mathematician in Paris. He also followed courses at Ecole Polytechnique in 1856 and made a grade at Ecole des Mines in Paris to become in 1863 a civil engineer in his hometown. From 1865 he was a Member of Geneva’s Société de philosophie et des sciences naturelles. Achard was also a Member of the Geneva Cantonal Council from 1878 to 1882. Achard lectured in the 1880s in thermodynamics at the Lausanne Academy of Sciences; later he also presented courses in electrotechniques combined with applications in Western Switzerland, where a development similar to the French Isère Department initiated. From 1886 to 1897, Achard mainly lived in Paris where he contributed to metallurgic questions of the French industry.
