 Pinche para ampliar
|
Self-taught engineer.
François Bourdon was a symbolic figure among civil technicians in the first half of the 19th century. His whole career was in fact centred around one specific objective: improving steam-navigation technology. With the aim of improving his knowledge, he left for the USA where he became a worker at Hallaire, a New-York-based industrial company specialized in building steamships destined for the open seas and navigation on the Hudson. He worked his way to becoming an engineer there. Having no desire to make his career across the Atlantic, Bourdon returned to Europe in 1836. After a stay in Liverpool, a major shipbuilding centre, he was called on by the Schneiders to become Director of the mechanical engineering workshops in Le Creusot, where he soon became one of the key elements in the company. His activities were devoted to renovating forges and blast furnaces and, above all, to the construction of steamships. Making the most of his experience in the USA, Bourdon developed a new generation of ships designed to navigate difficult rivers. These long, narrow boats, fitted with high-pressure engines, were remarkably
successful. At the same time, he designed oceangoing ships, mainly for the French Navy and the Postal administration. Its work was mainly focused on steam navigation (rivers or oceangoing) and it was this technical sector that was associated with the invention of the drop hammer. Bourdon developed this system for forging the big transmission shafts on the first transatlantic ships, something that could not be done with a water-driven head hammer or a swing hammer. The invention soon became an innovation and made a fortune for the Le Creusot company.
|
| |
|
|
diversas escrituras:
BOURDON, François
|
| |
|
|
|
Curriculum vitae
|
|
|
* 29.07.1797
|
Seurre, France
|
nacido
|
|
1824
|
|
Dépôt d'un brevet pour un nouveau système de remorquage des bateaux utilisant la vapeur.
|
|
1826
|
Lyon
|
Création d'une compagnie de navigation sur la Saône entre la Mulatière et l'île Barbe en faisant des essais de touage à vapeur.
|
|
1827
|
|
Chef de l'atelier d'entretien des forges et de l'outillage du Creusot de Manby et Wilson permettant la production du premier rail français.
|
|
1834
|
USA
|
Départ aux États-Unis où il entre chez Allaire & Co à New-York comme ouvrier, puis devient en un an contremaître, dessinateur et ingénieur.
|
|
1838
|
|
Conception d'un modèle réduit qui reçut le nom de marteau-pilon.
|
|
1840 - 1841
|
|
Construction d'un prototype du marteau-pilon. Dépôt du brevet le 30 septembre 1841.
|
|
19.04.1842
|
|
Brevet délivré du marteau-pilon.
|
|
1848 - 1849
|
|
Election de François Bourdon aux législatives. Représentant de Saône-et-Loire à l'Assemblée constituante où il siège parmi les républicains modérés jusqu'au 25 mai 1849.
|
|
1849
|
|
Mise au point des monte-charges à vapeur, des laminoirs à tablier élévateur, des machines soufflantes à grande vitesse, des appareils à air chaud par utilisation de flammes perdues.
|
|
1852
|
|
Diverses inventions : ponton à vapeur, portes flottantes pour le bassin de radoub du port Saint-Jean de Marseille, grues à vapeur pour les docks, dragues à vapeur et autres machines pour le percement du canal de Suez.
|
|
† 19.04.1865
|
Paris
|
fallecido
|
|
|
Newsletter
DMG-Lib
Europeana
