Subject: Re: [HM] Sainte-Lague, Founder of Graph Theory?
From: Udai Venedem (venedem@wanadoo.fr)
Date: Fri Jun 16 2000 - 17:46:30 EDT
Dear HMrs and other Graphists,
a collective thanks to those who privately answered to my question. I
understand they are so busy as not to want to be implicated in the
discussion, and prefer to stay anonymous.
A particulary informative book is:
***Graph theory 1736-1936***, by NL Biggs, EK Lloyd and RJ Wilson,
(published in paperback by Oxford University Press in 1998).
It does not say a word about Sainte-Lague (would be interesting to know
why!), but cannot help listing some of his works in the bibliography.
The concerned works by S.-L. are (C R stands for "Compte-Rendus
de l'Acad. Science de Paris"):
- Les re/seaux, in C R 176 (1923) p. 1202-1205.
- Les re/seaux unicursaux et bicursaux, in C R 182 (1926) p. 747-750.
- Les re/seaux (ou graphes), Me/morial des Sciences Mathe/matiques, fasc.
18, Paris, Gauthier-Villars, 1926.
- Ge/ome/trie de situation et jeux, Me/morial des Sciences Mathe/matiques,
fasc. 41, Paris, Gauthier-Villars, 1929.
In his "Note", ***Les re/seaux***, {C R 176 (1923), p. 1202}, presented by
E/mile Borel, Andr/e Sainte-Lagu:e (where ":" stands here for the "trema"
upon the "e") defines a "re/seau" (a lattice?) as a connective set of
points: "un ensemble de points du plan ou de l'espace dont certains sont
joints par des chemins de forme arbitraire, le seul point essentiel e/tant
de savoir pour deux sommets donne/s s'ils sont ou non joints par un chemin";
and he gives this precision:
"Cette e/tude, que nous avons commence/e il y aura biento^t vingt ans, a
e/t/e jusqu'ici peu pousse/e en France comme a\ l'e/tranger (o\u au lieu du
mot re/seau on emploie parfois celui de graphe)."
Which tends to suggest that Sainte-Lagu:e was working in this field since
1905 or so, that the wording of "graph" is not his invention, and that
he preferred to use the word "re/seau".
This 1923 "Note" was the start for SL's thesis ***Les Re/seaux***, Toulouse,
Privat 1924.
Udai Venedem
venedem@wanadoo.fr
welcomes you at
http://perso.wanadoo.fr/alta.mathematica/
a site devoted to collector's books of mathematics
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