Henry Darcy and His Law

References
Henry Darcy (1803-1858)

by
Glenn Brown
Oklahoma State University
Stillwater, Oklahoma, USA

updated 9/03/03

Henry Darcy Main

• Biswas, A. (1970). History of Hydrology. North-Holland Publishing Co., Amsterdam-London. (p. 288-291, 308-310, 314, 319). (Biswas discusses Darcy's role in hydraulics and ground-water hydrology. He credits Darcy with insight into infiltration, seasonal ground-water variations, and artesian wells.)
  
• Bobeck, P. (2003). Henry Darcy and the Public Fountains of the City of Dijon, in Henry P. G. Darcy and Other Pioneers in Hydraulics: Contributions in Celebration of the 200th Birthday of Henry Philibert Gaspard Darcy, G.O. Brown, J.D. Garbrecht, and W.H. Hager (eds), ASCE, Reston, VA. pg. 37-50.
  
• Brown, G., (2001). Darcy and the Pitot tube, in International Engineering History and Heritage, J. R. Rogers and A. J. Fredrich eds., ASCE, Reston, VA, pg. 360-366. (A discription of Darcy's work on the Pitot tube.)
  
• Brown, G. O., (2002). Henry Darcy and the making of a law. Water Resources Research, 38(7) doi:10.1029/2001WR000727. (Reviews the process of Darcy's discovery.)
  
• Brown, G. O., (2002). The history of the Darcy-Weisbach equation for pipe flow resistance, in Environmental and Water Resources History, A. Fredrich, and J. Rogers eds., ASCE, Reston, VA, pg. 34-43. (A overview of the D-W equation and the various contributors.)
  
• Brown, G., Rogers, J. and Garbrecht, J. (2000). "Task Committee Planning: Darcy Memorial Symposium on the History of Hydraulics". Journal of Hydraulic Engineering, 126(11):799-801. (This paper revisits Darcy's contribution in hydraulics and the spelling of his first name.)
  
• Brown, G. O., J. D. Garbrecht, and W. H. Hager (eds), (2003), Henry P. G. Darcy and Other Pioneers in Hydraulics: Contributions in Celebration of the 200th Birthday of Henry Philibert Gaspard Darcy, ASCE, Reston, VA. 310 pg.
  
• Brown, G. O., 2003. Henry Darcy's perfection of the Pitot tube, in Henry P. G. Darcy and Other Pioneers in Hydraulics: Contributions in Celebration of the 200th Birthday of Henry Philibert Gaspard Darcy, G.O. Brown, J.D. Garbrecht, and W.H. Hager (eds), ASCE, Reston, VA. pg. 14-23.
  
• Brown, G. O. and W. H. Hager, 2003, Note: Spell it "Henry Darcy", in Henry P. G. Darcy and Other Pioneers in Hydraulics: Contributions in Celebration of the 200th Birthday of Henry Philibert Gaspard Darcy, G.O. Brown, J.D. Garbrecht, and W.H. Hager (eds), ASCE, Reston, VA, pg. 1-3.
  
• Darcy, H. (1834). Rapport à Le Maire et au Conseil Municipal, de Dijon, sur les Moyens de Fournir L'Eau Nécessaire à cette Ville. Douillier, Dijon. ("Report to the Mayor and the Town Council of Dijon on the Means of Providing Necessary Water to the City", is the planning document which lead to the construction of the Dijon water supply.)
  
• Darcy, H. (1850). "Rapport à M. le Ministre des Travaux Publics, sur le pavage et le macadamisage des chaussées de Londres et de Paris". Annales des Ponts et Chaussées. Series 2, 10:1-264. ("Report to the Minister of Public Works on the Paving with Macadam of Streets in London and Paris". This is a curious report that contains detailed descriptions and interviews on the construction, cost, and maintenance of what was the state of the art in paving systems. It does not contain a single equation, which is unique for Darcy.)
  
• Darcy, H. (1856). Les Fontaines Publiques de la Ville de Dijon. Dalmont, Paris. 647 p. & atlas. ("The Public Fountains of the City of Dijon" is a lenghy work. The famous Appendix - Note D appears here.")
  
• Darcy, H. (1857). Recherches Experimentales Relatives au Mouvement de L'Eau dans les Tuyaux. Mallet-Bachelier, Paris. 268 p. & atlas. ("Experimental Research Relating to the Movement of Water in Pipes", presented Darcy's research on pipe flow resistance and was the first work to suggest the existence of the boundary layer in fluid flow. This publication provides the basis for his credit in the "Darcy-Weisbach" equation, even though Weisbach published before him in 1845.)
  
• Darcy, H. (1858). "Relative à quelques modifications à introduire dans le tube de Pitot". Annales des Ponts et Chaussées, Series 3; 15:351-359. ("Some modificantions introduced to the Pitot tube", was published just after his death.)
  
• Darcy, H. (1965). "Appendice - note D". Translation by J. J. Fried. Water Resources J., AWRA. 1:5-11. (Fried performed a partial translation of the Appendix, Note D and a page of the main text.)
  
• Darcy, H. (1969). "Détermination des lois d'écoulement de l'eau à travers le sable". In The Theory of Ground-Water Motion and Related Papers, by M. K. Hubbert, Hafner Pub. Co., New York. pp. 287-310. (Reprints of three papers with corrections, plus a facsimile of Darcy's Appendix D in French. This is the ultimate theoretical discussion of Darcy's Law.)
  
• Darcy, H. (1983). "Determination of the laws of flow of water through sand". Translation by R. A. Freeze with comments. In Physical Hydrogeology, R. A. Freeze et W. Black (eds) Benchmark Papers in Geology, Hutchinson-Ross 72:8-20. (Freeze provides a good translation of the Appendix, Note D, as part of an excellent collection of early ground-water papers.)
  
• Darcy, H. and Bazin, H. (1865). Recherches Hydrauliques, Enterprises par M. H. Darcy, Imprimerie Nationale, Paris. 684 p. & atlas. ("Hydraulic Research, Enterprises by Mr. H. Darcy", was written by Bazin after Darcy's death and presents the results of experiments orginally designed under Darcy's supervision.)
  
• Darcy, H., 2003, Henry Darcy: Inspecteur général des ponts et chaussées, by Henry Darcy (V),", in Henry P. G. Darcy and Other Pioneers in Hydraulics: Contributions in Celebration of the 200th Birthday of Henry Philibert Gaspard Darcy, G.O. Brown, J.D. Garbrecht, and W.H. Hager (eds), ASCE, Reston, VA, pg. 4-13.
  
• Darcy, P. (1957). Henry Darcy: Inspecteur Général des Ponts et Chaussées, 1803-1858. Imprimerie Darantiere, Dijon. 63 p. (Written by a great nephew using both public and family material. A Paul Darcy also wrote several books on political and military topics from 1919 to 1933. Fancher communicated with a Colonel Darcy in 1956. This book provides some very interesting personal notes. However, the author makes several technical errors. Allen Freeze graciously supplied me with a copy of this text. Freeze picked up Paul Darcy's book in Dijon. It does not appear in any library catalogs.)
  
• Dumay, V. (1845). Notice Historique sur L'Établissement des Fontaines Publique de Dijon. Frantin, Dijon. 108 p. (This book is both a historical note on the Dijon water system and the nomination for Darcy's membership to the Dijon Academy of Arts and Sciences.)
  
• Fancher, G. (1956). "Henry Darcy-engineer and benefactor of mankind". J. of Petroleum Tech., Oct. 12-14. (Written by the Head of the Petroleum Engineering Department at the University of Texas on the 100 year anniversary of his equation's publication, this article briefly outlines Darcy's contributions.)
  
• Freeze, R. A. (1994). "Henry Darcy and the fountains of Dijon". Ground Water. 32, 23-30. (A very nice article that attempts to place Darcy within the context of his time.)
  
• Gisonni, C. (2003). "Henry Darcy and the pipe flow formula", in Henry P. G. Darcy and Other Pioneers in Hydraulics: Contributions in Celebration of the 200th Birthday of Henry Philibert Gaspard Darcy, G.O. Brown, J.D. Garbrecht, and W.H. Hager (eds), ASCE, Reston, VA. pg. 24-36.
  
• Hager, W. (1994). "Die historische Entwicklung der Fliessformel". Schwiezer Ingenieur und Architekt. 9(24):123-133. (A general History of fluid flow equations, this paper has a page on Darcy.)
  
• Hager, W. (2003). "Henry Darcy: Biography by Caudemberg, in Henry P. G. Darcy and Other Pioneers in Hydraulics: Contributions in Celebration of the 200th Birthday of Henry Philibert Gaspard Darcy, G.O. Brown, J.D. Garbrecht, and W.H. Hager (eds), ASCE, Reston, VA. pg. 51-70.
  
• Hager, W. H. and Gisonni, C. (2003). "Henry Bazin: Hydraulician", in Henry P. G. Darcy and Other Pioneers in Hydraulics: Contributions in Celebration of the 200th Birthday of Henry Philibert Gaspard Darcy, G.O. Brown, J.D. Garbrecht, and W.H. Hager (eds), ASCE, Reston, VA. pg. 90-115.
  
• Isambert, Y. (1965). "Darcy". Dictionnaire de Biographie Française. R. D'amat and R. Limouzin-Lamothe (eds), Letouzey et Ané, Paris, 10:166-168. (This short biography is based on Charié-Marsaines. It is followed by an entry that addresses Darcy's brother, nephew and great nephew.)
  
• Levi, E. (1995). The Science of Water, The Foundation of Modern Hydraulics. ASCE Press, New York. pp. 161, 174-177, 496-497. (This work briefly touches on some of Darcy's efforts.)
  
• Marsaines, C. (1858). "Notice necrologique sur M. Darcy, Inspecteur Général des Ponts et Chaussées", Annales des Ponts et Chaussées. Series 3; 15:90-109. ("Obituary of Mr. Darcy, Inspector General of Bridges and Roads" is a very nice account of Darcy's life written just after his death.)
  
• Muteau, C. and Garnier, J. (1858-1860). "Darcy". Galérie Bourguignonne. J. Picard, Dijon. ("Galery Burgundian" This citation has not been verified.)
  
• Tarbé de St-Hardouin, F. P. H. (1884). "Darcy". Notices Biographiques sur les Ingénieurs des Ponts et Chaussées. Baudry & Cie., Paris, 224-226. ("Biographical Notes on the Engineers of Bridges and Roads" is based on Charié-Marsaines account.)
  
• Philip, J. R. (1995). "Desperately seeking Darcy in Dijon". Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J. 59:319-324. (Written by a great soil scientist, this is an acidic article that points out the City of Dijon has forgotten its favorite son. I had the privilege to hear Philip deliver this paper orally in Minneapolis, MN at the SSSA meeting. He was even more caustic then. Philip got most of his source material from the Bibliothéque Municipale, Dijon.)
  
• Rao, K. K. (1968). "The life and work of Darcy (1803-1858)". Irrigation and Power, Delhi, India. 25(2): 223-225. (A nice short article on Darcy's major contributions to hydraulics.)
  
• Rouse, H. and Ince, S., (1957). History of Hydraulics. Iowa Institute of Hydraulic Research, The University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA. pp. 169-173, 175, 178, 191, 201, 208. (This classic reference book discusses Darcy in the context of the profession and his general efforts in fluid mechanics. It shows Darcy was clearly a major contributor to 19th century hydraulic research.)
  

Internet

• La biographie du Darcy: City of Dijon. http://perso.club-internet.fr/dijon21/darc.htm
  
• Darcy Biography: European Geophysical Society. http://www.mpae.gwdg.de/EGS/egs_info/darcy.htm
  
• Henry Darcy and His Law. http://biosystems.okstate.edu/darcy

Please email me if you have additional references.