Charles Joseph Minard
Encyclopedia
Charles Joseph Minard was a French civil engineer
Civil engineer
A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering; the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructures while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing infrastructures that have been neglected.Originally, a...

 noted for his inventions in the field of information graphics
Information graphics
Information graphics or infographics are graphic visual representations of information, data or knowledge. These graphics present complex information quickly and clearly, such as in signs, maps, journalism, technical writing, and education...

.

Biography

Minard was born in Dijon
Dijon
Dijon is a city in eastern France, the capital of the Côte-d'Or département and of the Burgundy region.Dijon is the historical capital of the region of Burgundy. Population : 151,576 within the city limits; 250,516 for the greater Dijon area....

 and studied science and mathematics 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...

, then civil engineering at École nationale 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...

.

After working as a civil engineer on dam, canal and bridge projects throughout Europe for many years, he was appointed superintendent of the École nationale 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...

 (School of Bridges and Roads) in 1830, a position he held until 1836. He became an inspector in the Corps des Ponts
Corps of Bridges and Roads (France)
The Corps of Bridges is a great technical corps of the French state. It is formed of the State Engineers of the Bridges.People entering the Corps are educated at the École Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées...

 (Corps of Bridges) from which he retired in 1851, dedicating himself to private research thereafter.

Work

Information graphics

Minard was a pioneer of the use of graphics in engineering and statistics. He is famous for his Carte figurative des pertes successives en hommes de l'Armée Française dans la campagne de Russie 1812-1813, a flow map
Flow map
Flow maps in cartography are by definition of Phan "a mix of maps and flow charts, that show the movement of objects from one location to another, such as the number of people in a migration, the amount of goods being traded, or the number of packets in a network".- Overview :Flow maps according...

 published in 1869 on the subject of Napoleon's disastrous Russian campaign of 1812.

The graph displays several variables in a single two-dimensional image:
  • the size of the army - providing a strong visual representation of human suffering, e.g. the sudden decrease of the army's size at the crossing of the Berezina river
    Battle of Berezina
    The Battle of Berezina took place November 26–29, 1812 between the French army of Napoleon, retreating after his invasion of Russia and crossing the Berezina , and the Russian armies under Mikhail Kutuzov, Peter Wittgenstein and Admiral Pavel Chichagov. The battle ended with a mixed outcome...

     on the retreat;
  • the geographical co-ordinates, latitude and longitude, of the army as it moved;
  • the direction that the army was traveling, both in advance and in retreat, showing where units split off and rejoined;
  • the location of the army with respect to certain dates; and
  • the weather temperature along the path of the retreat, in another strong visualisation of events (during the retreat "one of the worst winters in recent memory set in").


Étienne-Jules Marey
Étienne-Jules Marey
Étienne-Jules Marey was a French scientist and chronophotographer.His work was significant in the development of cardiology, physical instrumentation, aviation, cinematography and the science of labor photography...

 first called notice to this dramatic depiction of the fate of Napoleon's army in the Russian campaign, saying it "defies the pen of the historian in its brutal eloquence".
Edward Tufte
Edward Tufte
Edward Rolf Tufte is an American statistician and professor emeritus of political science, statistics, and computer science at Yale University. He is noted for his writings on information design and as a pioneer in the field of data visualization....

 says it "may well be the best statistical graphic ever drawn" and uses it as a prime example in The Visual Display of Quantitative Information.

Howard Wainer
Howard Wainer
- Early life:Howard Wainer was born Howard Charles Goldhaber in Brooklyn, New York on October 26, 1943. In 1948 his father Meyer Goldhaber, an anatomist by education and a dentist by profession, died of complications from a bleeding ulcer at the age of 35. Howard, his brother and his mother moved...

 identified Minard's map as a "gem" of information graphics, nominating it as the "World's Champion Graph".

Further reading

  • Michael Friendly
    Michael Friendly
    Michael Lewis Friendly is a Professor of Psychology at York University in Ontario, Canada, and an Associate Coordinator with the Statistical Consulting Service.- Biography :...

     (2002). Visions and re-visions of Charles Joseph Minard. Journal of Educational and Behavioral Statistics. 27 (1), 31–52.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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