Henri-Pierre Flaud
Henri-Pierre Flaud (1817-1874), the son of Breton farmers and sailors, studied at the Ecole royale des Arts et Métiers d'Angers, graduating with an engineering degree in 1834. In 1844, he started a factory in Paris making steam pumps. He won many medals, including a gold medal at the 1851 Great Exhibition in London. Flaud and Henri Giffard developed the first steam engine for a dirigible. He also equipped Napoleon III's yacht, the Aigle , with a steam engine. He built new workshops in Grenelle. During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71, the Flaud factory manufactured munitions.
H.P. Flaud died suddenly in 1874. One of his sons, Gustave, took over the factory in partnership with one of the company's engineers, Alexandre Cohandet, an electrical specialist. They joined the Société Lyonnaise de Constructions Mécaniques et de Lumière Électrique. This business ceased trading in 1933.[1]
The above source includes an 1871 advert for fire pumps, referring to factories in Paris and Brest, and stating that since 1846 they were the sole suppliers of fire pumps to the Paris fire brigade.