Jacques-Barthélemy Micheli du Crest

Jacques-Barthélemy Micheli du Crest was a military engineer, physicist and cartographer from the Republic of Geneva, now in Switzerland. Born into the aristocracy, he eventually fled to France as an enemy of Geneva and spent his later years in Aarburg Castle as a political prisoner. During his time there, he mapped the Alps accurately using rudimentary tools. One of his other major accomplishments whilst in exile was to create a thermometer and a temperature scale, which was commonly used in Switzerland and around Europe until it became obsolete in the 19th century.