(Henri) Louis Le Chatelier (1815-1873), locomotive engineer, Ingenieur en Chef des Mines
Well known for investigations into the counter-weighting of locomotive engines, the working of blast furnaces, and the influence of the temperature of the cylinder on steam.
1815 born in Paris February 20
1845 Gained experience on the railways of Germany, on which he published a report
1849 Published a seminal study on the stability of locomotive engines in motion.
1851 Published a report on English railways
He tackled the difficult problem of disturbances of locomotive movements, for which he determined the necessary counterweight to eliminate or reduce these excursions.
Instigated the idea of using steam and water injection in the exhaust, useful for downhill slopes.
1851 he published, in collaboration with Flachat, Petiet and Polonceau, a Guide to the mechanic and driver of locomotives.
1856 With the introduction of the Siemens oven, Le Chatelier was concerned with using them, first, for the manufacture of steel.
1869 Published 3 works on the apparatus for steam-reversing, something which had been hardly used in England, but which had, by this time, been applied to nearly three thousand locomotives on the continent.[1]
1873 Died November 10
1873 Obituary [2]
M. Le Cbatelier's numerous acquaintances in England will mourn the loss of a generous genial man, and the scientific world in general, and especially the section of it which interests itself in the industrial applications of science, will regret one of the ablest of their compeers.
He was born in 1816, was the most brilliant of the pupils of the Ecole Polytechnique of 1834 to 1836, and entered the Corps of Mining Engineers of the State. Here his scientific services were of so high a character that in 1846 he was chosen by the Government to control the railways then in activity.
In 1848 he became engineer-in-chief of the working management of the companies of the Centre and of the Paris and Orleans Railway. He was successively appointed to the important office of surveillance of the Great Northern of France, the Eastern Railway, and the Chemin de Ceinture, the encircling railway of Paris...[more]
See Also
Sources of Information
- ↑ The Engineer 1869/09/17
- ↑ Engineering 1873 Jul-Dec: Index: General Index
- Biography in French [1]