A military engineer and deputy for the Côte-d’Or, Prieur-Duvernois joined the Committee of Public Safety in August 1793 and supervised arms, gunpowder and saltpetre production for the Republic’s armies. He helped establish the École Polytechnique. He played an important part in developing the metric system and presented the report that led to the law of 7 April 1795 establishing its principal units and decimal nomenclature. From 1795 to 1798 he sat in the Council of Five Hundred, continuing his work on military supply, technical education and economic administration. After withdrawing from politics, he established a wallpaper manufactory in Dijon. Created a count of the Empire in 1808, he retired from the army as a colonel in 1811 and died in Dijon in 1832.
