Albert Caquot

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Albert Irénée Caquot (born July 1, 1881 in Vouziers , Ardennes , † November 28, 1976 in Paris ) was a French engineer who mainly worked in the fields of civil engineering and aviation . He built more than 300 bridges, dams and other structures, several of which were world-class. He received military honors in the First World War , received the Legion of Honor in 1951 and numerous other awards, including from Great Britain and the USA. From 1934 he was a member of the French Academy of Sciences , where he was also president from 1952 to 1961.

biography

His parents Paul and Marie-Irma Caquot owned a farm in Vouziers in the Ardennes. His father was so progressive that he installed electricity and telephones in their house as early as 1890. At the age of 18, one year after graduating from high school in Reims , Albert went to the École polytechnique (X1899) and later to the École Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées .

Scientist and designer

From 1905 to 1912 he was an engineer and project manager in Troyes ( Département Aube ). There he improved the sewer system so that the city was protected from the flood of the century in 1910 . In 1912 he became a partner in the planning office of Armand Considère , where he could apply his talent as a designer. After Considère's death in 1914, the company was called "Pelnard-Considère & Caquot". He also worked there from 1919 to 1928, from 1934 to 1938 and again from 1940.

Albert Caquot was also a scientific researcher whose results could mostly be applied immediately. His main contributions were:

  • Design of reinforced concrete , taking into account the strength of the material. In 1930 he defined the "intrinsic curve" and explained why the theory of elasticity was no longer sufficient for calculating modern building structures.
  • the Caquot criterion for plastic solids in continuum mechanics (solides rigides plastiques en mécanique des milieux continus).
  • For the young soil mechanics and foundation calculations in geotechnics, he found a " theorem of the corresponding states " (théorème des états correspondants; corresponding states theorem, CST). His 1933 publication on the stability of powdery or coherent material was recognized by the Académie des sciences , by which he was elected a member of the mechanics section on November 12, 1934. In 1948 he and Jean Kerisel (1908-2005), his son-in-law and student, developed a new earth pressure theory with passive earth pressure at wall friction with a logarithmic sliding surface. This principle is still known today as a special earth resistance value for curved sliding surfaces according to Caquot-Kerisel. With Kerisel he also wrote a well-known textbook on soil mechanics at the time, which was also translated into German.
  • He also planned to bridge the English Channel in several steps with 810 m long girders on two floors with eight lanes, two railway tracks and two tracks for an aerotrain (skytrain).

During his life, Caquot taught mechanics / materials science at three engineering colleges in Paris: at the École nationale supérieure des mines de Paris , at the École Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées and at the Institut supérieur de l'aéronautique et de l'espace .

As a design engineer and structural engineer , he designed more than 300 bridges and other structures, many of which represented world records in their time:

Two prestigious structures made it internationally famous: the inner reinforced concrete structure of the large statue of Christ on Corcovado in Rio de Janeiro from 1931 (30 m high and 1145 tonnes in weight), and the George V Bridge in Glasgow over the Clyde , where the Scottish engineers asked his advice.

Aerospace engineer

During his life he devoted himself alternately to civil engineering and aviation, as dictated by the rhythm of the First and Second World Wars . Caquot's contributions to aviation are invaluable, from the design of the “Caquot dirigeable” to some innovations in the French Ministry of Aviation and the establishment of an institute for fluid mechanics. Marcel Dassault , whom Caquot had commissioned with a number of projects, considered him to be one of the best, most innovative and visionary engineers aviation has had.

From 1901 he completed his military service in an airship unit of the French army. At the beginning of the First World War he led an airship battalion as a lieutenant (captain?). He noticed the instability of the balloon in the wind and therefore designed a sausage-shaped balloon with stabilizers at the rear and which could still be operated at 90 km / h wind speed. During the war France also produced this “caquot dirigeable” for the Allies England and the USA. This resulted in an advantage in military reconnaissance, Allied superiority in the air, and ultimately victory. In 1918, Georges Clemenceau appointed Caquot as technical director for all military aviation.

In 1919, on Caquot's suggestion, the Musée de l'Air et de l'Espace (Air and Space Museum) was founded in Le Bourget as the world's first aviation museum.

In 1928 Caquot became the first technical director of the newly established Ministry of Aviation . He pursued a policy of research, prototyping and mass production that made France a leader in the aviation industry. His main achievements were:

In 1934 he resigned after a budget cut that prevented him from continuing his projects and went back into the civil engineering business for a few years.

In 1935 he had a hangar built that was 120 m long, 60 m wide and 9 m high and had an area of ​​10,000 square meters with extensions. It is still in operation today.

In 1938, under the auspices of the war, Caquot was appointed to organize national aviation affairs. In July 1939 he also became technical director in the Ministry of Aviation. In 1940 he resigned.

At the age of over 80 he took over the construction management of the gigantic tidal power station Usine marémotrice de la Rance in the bay of Saint-Malo in Brittany.

The human being

He always showed great spiritual independence and selflessness. The numerous honors he received from various countries, for example the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor in 1951, testify to his extraordinary merits. For more than 20 years he has presided over numerous French scientific organizations such as the Conseil National des Ingénieurs Français and the Société d'Encouragement pour l'Industrie Nationale and was on the board of the Électricité de France for more than ten years . He was a member of the Académie des Sciences for 41 years and has been its president since 1952. In 1961, at the age of 80, he voluntarily gave up all of his presidential offices, all of which he had assumed on a voluntary basis. He was warm-hearted, attentive, always approachable and familiar.

Appreciations

In 1934 he was elected a member of the Académie des Sciences . On July 2, 2001, a 4.5-franc (€ 0.69) postage stamp was issued in France in honor of Caquot to commemorate his 120th birthday and the 25th anniversary of his death. The “Caquot dirigeable” airship “saucisse” and the Caille Bridge, two of his works, were shown next to his portrait.

The " Albert Caquot Prize " has been awarded every year since 1989 by the French Association Francaise de Génie Civil (AFGC) to an engineer for his life's work, especially for his scientific and technical achievements, his projects and works, but also for his moral work and ethical characteristics and the influence on the constructor world. The prize is awarded annually alternately to a French engineer who is a member of the AFGC and to a foreign engineer. Among the winners were Fritz Leonhardt (1909–1999), Tung-Yen Lin (1912–2003), Alan Garnett Davenport (1932–2009) and Jean Muller (1925–2005).

Works

  • A. Caquot: Role des matériaux inertes dans le béton: Mem. Soc. Ingen. Civils France (Juillet-Aout) 1935.
  • Caquot, Jean Kérisel Traité de mécanique de sols , 3rd edition 1956, German translation Basics of soil mechanics , Springer 1967.

literature

  • "250 ans de l'Ecole des Ponts en cent portraits" , sous la direction de Guy Coronio, Presses de l'Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées, février 1997.
  • Jean Kerisel Albert Caquot, Créateur et Précurseur , Eyrolles, Paris 1978.
  • Jean Kerisel Albert Caquot (1881-1976), Savant, soldat et bâtisseur , Presses de l'ENPC, Paris, 2001.
  • "L'art de l'ingénieur de Peyronnet à Caquot, l'innovation scientifique liée à la pratique" , Presses de l'Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées (ENPC), October 2004.
  • Le Curieux Vouzinois, "Hyppolyte Taine and Albert Caquot", by Jean Kerisel, Vouziers (Ardennes), March 25, 2001.
  • Sciences Ouest, number 112, "L'Ecole Polytechnique et la Bretagne. Le barrage et l'usine maremotrice de la Rance", June 1995.
  • L'Union, "Une journee particuliere en hommage a Albert Caquot", Vouziers (Ardennes), 25 March 1995.
  • La Jaune et la Rouge, "Albert Caquot (X 1899)", by Robert Paoli (X 1931), November 1993.
  • Achim Hettler and Karl-Eugen Kurrer : Earth pressure . Ernst & Sohn , Berlin 2019, ISBN 978-3-433-03274-9 , pp. 302–303

Web links

Commons : Albert Caquot  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ George V Bridge on the Clyde River ( April 19, 2005 memento in the Internet Archive )
  2. ↑ Pierre Lauroua: L'aviation civile - une administration dans Paris - 1919-2009 . Mission Mémoire de l'aviation civile, 2012, ISBN 978-2-11-129156-0 , p. 14 (French, full text on aviation-civile.gouv.fr ).
  3. ↑ La grande soufflerie de recherche de Meudon, S1Ch, archive link ( Memento from June 22, 2007 in the Internet Archive ).
  4. ^ List of members since 1666: Letter C. Académie des sciences, accessed on October 25, 2019 (French).
  5. ^ Des Ponts et des Hommes ( Memento of November 24, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) Postage stamps with engineers and architects
personal data
SURNAME Caquot, Albert
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Caquot, Albert Irénée
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French engineer
DATE OF BIRTH July 1, 1881
PLACE OF BIRTH Vouziers , France
DATE OF DEATH November 28, 1976
Place of death Paris