Benoît Rouquayrol

Benoît Rouquayrol (born June 13, 1826 in Espalion , † November 14, 1875 in Rodez ) was a French mining engineer who, together with the French naval officer Auguste Denayrouze and his brother Louis, developed the forerunner of the modern compressed air diving device.

Life

After attending high school in Rodez and the Collège d'Espalion, Rouquayrol enrolled at the technical college for mining in Saint-Étienne in 1848 . The mining and iron foundry company of his home department Aveyron hired him as a mining engineer after graduating. He worked for a few years in one of the company's mining and blast furnace operations before he became operations director there in 1865. He died of flu at the age of 49 after his health had already been severely affected.

Through his work in the mining industry, Rouquayrol knew from his own experience the particular dangers for miners that result from the accumulation of non-breathable gases in the tunnels and thought about remedial action. To this end, in 1860 he developed a breathing apparatus with membrane-controlled regulators that enabled its wearer to penetrate into these areas and rescue miners who had had an accident. For this invention he received a gold medal for special services to the mining industry at a regional exhibition in 1863. The device was patented in 1865.

In collaboration with Auguste and Louis Denayrouze, the breathing apparatus was turned into a diving device that was first used by the French Navy and later worldwide and became known under the name Rouquayrol-Denayrouze .

The French writer Jules Verne set this device a literary monument in his novel Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea . The Musée du Scaphandre in Espalion is a reminder of the work of Rouquayrol.