Maurice Lévy was a French

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 engineer

Engineer

An engineer is a professional practitioner of engineering, concerned with applying scientific knowledge, mathematics and ingenuity to develop solutions for technical problems. Engineers design materials, structures, machines and systems while considering the limitations imposed by practicality,...

 and member of the Institut de France

Institut de France

The Institut de France is a French learned society, grouping five académies, the most famous of which is the Académie française.The institute, located in Paris, manages approximately 1,000 foundations, as well as museums and chateaux open for visit. It also awards prizes and subsidies, which...

.

Lévy was born in Ribeauvillé

Ribeauvillé

Ribeauvillé is a commune in the Haut-Rhin department in Alsace in north-eastern France.Its inhabitants are called Ribeauvillois.The picturesque town is located around north of Colmar and south of Strasbourg.-History:...

 in Alsace

Alsace

Alsace is the fifth-smallest of the 27 regions of France in land area , and the smallest in metropolitan France. It is also the seventh-most densely populated region in France and third most densely populated region in metropolitan France, with ca. 220 inhabitants per km²...

. Educated at the École Polytechnique

École Polytechnique

The École Polytechnique is a state-run institution of higher education and research in Palaiseau, Essonne, France, near Paris. Polytechnique is renowned for its four year undergraduate/graduate Master's program...

, where he was a student of Adhémar Jean Claude Barré de Saint-Venant

Adhémar Jean Claude Barré de Saint-Venant

Adhémar Jean Claude Barré de Saint-Venant was a mechanician and mathematician who contributed to early stress analysis and also developed the one-dimensional unsteady open channel flow shallow water equations or Saint-Venant equations that are a fundamental set of equations used in modern...

, and the École des Ponts et Chaussées

École Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées

Founded in 1747, the École nationale des ponts et chaussées , often referred to as les Ponts, is the world's oldest civil engineering school...

, he became an engineer in 1863. During the Franco-Prussian War

Franco-Prussian War

The Franco-Prussian War or Franco-German War, often referred to in France as the 1870 War was a conflict between the Second French Empire and the Kingdom of Prussia. Prussia was aided by the North German Confederation, of which it was a member, and the South German states of Baden, Württemberg and...

 (1870–1871), he was entrusted by the Government of National Defense

Government of National Defense

Le Gouvernement de la Défense Nationale, or The Government of National Defence, was the first Government of the Third Republic of France from September 4, 1870, to February 13, 1871, during the Franco-Prussian War, formed after the Emperor Louis Napoleon III was captured by the Prussian army. The...

 with the control of part of the artillery. During the next decade he held several educational positions, becoming professor

Professor

A professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...

 at the École Centrale in 1875, member of the commission of the geodetic survey of France in 1879, and professor at the Collège de France

Collège de France

The Collège de France is a higher education and research establishment located in Paris, France, in the 5th arrondissement, or Latin Quarter, across the street from the historical campus of La Sorbonne at the intersection of Rue Saint-Jacques and Rue des Écoles...

 in 1885.

Total strain theory Lévy changed the assumption, "the directions of principal strains coincide with those of the principal stresses", stated by Saint-Venant, to "the directions of increments of principal strains coincide with those of the principal stresses" and that was also the first attempt of using an incremental flow rule.

In 1888 Lévy inaugurated a system of boat-traction by means of overhead cables. A trial system was installed between Joinville-le-Pont

Joinville-le-Pont

Joinville-le-Pont is a commune in the southeastern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the center of Paris.-History:The commune was created in 1791 under the name La Branche-du-Pont-de-Saint-Maur by detaching its territory from the commune of Saint-Maur-des-Fossés...

 and Saint-Maurice

Saint-Maurice

Saint-Maurice is the name or part of the name of numerous places in French speaking countries. It refers to the legendary Saint Maurice.- Canada :...

; it consisted of an endless cable which was kept in motion by powerful steam-engines and to which boats were attached and thus kept at a speed of four kilometers an hour. The system proved unsatisfactory, however.

Selected works

Lévy is the author of several works, including:

• "La Statique Graphique et Ses Applications à l'Art des Constructions" (1874; 2d ed. 1887);
• "Sur le Principe d'Énergie" (1888);
• "Étude des Moyens de Traction des Bateaux: Le Halage Funiculaire" (with M. G. Pavie, 1894)

Lévy also wrote papers on kinematics

Kinematics

Kinematics is the branch of classical mechanics that describes the motion of bodies and systems without consideration of the forces that cause the motion....

, mechanics

Mechanics

Mechanics is the branch of physics concerned with the behavior of physical bodies when subjected to forces or displacements, and the subsequent effects of the bodies on their environment....

, physical mathematics, geometry

Geometry

Geometry arose as the field of knowledge dealing with spatial relationships. Geometry was one of the two fields of pre-modern mathematics, the other being the study of numbers ....

, etc., in the "Comptes rendus de l'Académie des sciences", the "Journal de l'Ecole Polytechnique", and the "Journal des Mathematiques Pures et Appliquées".

Lévy was an officer of the Legion of Honor and of public instruction, and a member of the Academy of Sciences

Academy of Sciences

An Academy of Sciences is a national academy or another learned society dedicated to sciences.In non-English speaking countries, the range of academic fields of the members of a national Academy of Science often includes fields which would not normally be classed as "science" in English...

 and of the Royal Academy of Sciences of Rome.