Abel Foullon; France, was an author, director of the Mint

Mint (coin)

A mint is an industrial facility which manufactures coins for currency.The history of mints correlates closely with the history of coins. One difference is that the history of the mint is usually closely tied to the political situation of an era...

 for Henry II of France

Henry II of France

Henry II was King of France from 31 March 1547 until his death in 1559.-Early years:Henry was born in the royal Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, near Paris, the son of Francis I and Claude, Duchess of Brittany .His father was captured at the Battle of Pavia in 1525 by his sworn enemy,...

 and also an engineer to the king of France after Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci was an Italian Renaissance polymath: painter, sculptor, architect, musician, scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist and writer whose genius, perhaps more than that of any other figure, epitomized the Renaissance...

.

His Holometer is an instrument for making of angular measurements for surveying. In 1551, Henry II granted Abel a 10 year exclusive patent

Patent

A patent is a form of intellectual property. It consists of a set of exclusive rights granted by a sovereign state to an inventor or their assignee for a limited period of time in exchange for the public disclosure of an invention....

monopoly on the holometer in exchange for publishing a description of it. A description of an invention in a patent is called a patent “specification”. This first patent specification was entitled "Usaige & Description de l'holmetre". Publication was delayed until after the patent expired in 1561.

External links

• http://wissensgeschichte.biblhertz.it/Glossario/Glossario_Italiano/olometro/
• http://www.nv-landsurveyors.org/files/Topographic_Mapping_ACSM_Student_Competition.pdf