Online Encyclopedia

Make a correction

Your email address will not appear on the site. Note, comments may take some time to be approved.

Back to article: BENJAMIN NICOLAS MARIE APPERT (1797-1847)

Your email: Article name: Article content:

APPERT, BENJAMIN NICOLAS MARIE (1797-1847), French philanthropist, was born in Paris on the loth of September 1797. While a young man he introduced a system of mutual instruction into the regimental schools of the department of the Nord. The success which it obtained induced him to publish a Manual setting forth his system. While engaged in teaching prisoners at Montaigu, he fell under the suspicion of having connived at the escape of two of them, and was thrown into the prison of La Force. On his release he resolved to devote the rest of his life to bettering the condition of those whose lot he had for a time shared, and he travelled much over Europe for the purpose of studying the various systems of prison discipline, and wrote several books on the subject. After the revolution of 183o he became secretary to Queen Marie Amelie, and organized the measures taken for the relief of the needy. He was decorated with the Legion of Honour in 1835.
His brother, FRANCOIS APPERT (d. 1840), was the inventor of the method of preserving food by enclosing it in hermetically sealed tins; he left a work entitled Art de conserver les substances animales et vt g6lables.