 He encouraged him as he worked on the new invention, earned his trust, and promptly stole the idea for himself, writing a letter to the French Academy of Sciences describing the "Lepaute system".Beaumarchais was outraged when he read in the September issue of "Le Mercure de France" that M. Lepaute had just invented the most wonderful mechanism for a more portable clock.and wrote a strongly-worded letter to that same newspaper defending the invention as his own and urging the French Academy of Sciences to see the proof for themselves.