Jean Georges Luc Clarke
of France
Born 25 October 1801 in Bordeaux, the son of Luc Tobie Clarke and Anne Jeanne Clarke. Died 26 June 1848 in Paris.[1]
Author of 'Rapport au Conseil d'administration du chemin de fer de Paris à Orléans sur sa Mission en Angleterre et Belgique (December 1838)'[2]. This is an account of his mission on behalf of the Cie. des chemins de fer de Paris-Orléans in connection with the construction of the Paris and Orleans Railway, including the purchase of locomotives and machine tools. He visited the main railway centres and locomotive manufacturers in England and Belgium, and studied methods of working, including signalling, ticketing, luggage handling, track, sleepers, fuel, etc.
A number of locomotives and machine tools were ordered. There were 15 locomotives (two each from Stephenson, Hawthorn, Mather, Dixon and Co, Todd, Kitson and Laird, Fenton, Murray and Jackson, and five from Sharp, Roberts and Co, plus spares (crank axles/wheelsets, eccentrics, connecting rods, boiler tubes, ferrules, bearings).
Eleven machine tools were ordered: five from Sharp, Roberts and Co (a slotting machine, radial arm drilling machine, small hand planer, machine for boring bearings, a machine called a tour sphérique, but the desciption refers to a machine for cutting the flanks of nuts); a lathe and a planing machine from Joseph Whitworth and Co; two lathes from Hetherington, one being a large lathe to accommodate a crank axle complete with wheels; a lathe from Fox of Derby; a planing machine with patented features by William Collier and Co. The total cost of the machine tools was £2607.