Note 63 — PAPER 27

This work was among the books sent back by Sylvanus Thayer when he visited France in 1816 to observe the education of the French army cadets. Thayer's visit resulted in his adopting the philosophy of the Ecole Polytechnique in his reorganization of the U.S. Military Academy and, incidentally, in his inclusion of Hachette's course in the Academy's curriculum (U.S. Congress, American State Papers, Washington, 1832-1861, Class v, Military Affairs, vol. 2, p. 661: Sidney Forman, West Point, New York, 1950, pp. 36-60). There is a collection of miscellaneous papers (indexed under Sylvanus Thayer and William McRee, U.S. National Archives, RG 77, Office, Chief of Engineers, Boxes 1 and 6) pertaining to the U.S. Military Academy of this period, but I found no mention of kinematics in this collection.