George Broca

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George Broca (born February 3, 1849 in Algiers , † 1918 ) was the director of Tramways du Nord in Paris and inventor of the Broca grooved rail for trams .

Professional development

Profile du Rail Broca, en forme du champignon. Profile N ° 1 pour alignements (Doc. Archives de Paris) .jpg
Profile of the Broca grooved rail for trams
Profile du Rail Broca. Coupe transversale du la pose du rail (Doc. Archives de Paris) .jpg
Top view and cross section of installed Broca rails
Rolling mill for grooved rails and other profile iron (Polytechnisches Journal, 1880, Volume 238, Table 2 and Pages 23–24) .jpg
Rolling mill for grooved rails, in a patent specification from 1880


After George Broca graduated from the École des Arts et Manufactures (School of Applied Arts) in 1871 at the age of 25 , Georges Broca was appointed director of technical services for the Tramways du Nord tram company . Shortly after taking office, in 1876 he presented a steel grooved tram rail with a flat base that could be manufactured in rolling mills as an alternative to the U-shaped Loubat rail , which had been developed by Alphonse Loubat in 1852 for the Chemin de Fer Américain in Paris . They have a flat base and a head similar to the Vignol rail , in which a groove for the wheel flanges was rolled into it.

After presenting this new rail in England with a six-month exclusive patent, he tried it out in 1879 on a section of the Tramways du Nord in Paris. In 1881, 300 meters of rail on the Louvre - Versailles line were replaced by the Broca system. The tests were very successful, after which the rail profile was further improved to ensure that the trams run better.

The Société anonyme des Mines et Usines du Nord et de l'Est de la France (fr) in Trith-Saint-Léger patented a rolling system for the production of grooved rails in September 1879. It consisted of two head rollers and a vertical roller with appropriate calibration. The vertical roller was rotated by the rolling stock or by gears. On the ends of the rollers protruding beyond the roller frame, the rail had correspondingly profiled head rollers A and B. The rail, which was finished down to the groove, was placed between these head rollers and at the same time exposed to the action of the vertical roller D, which pressed the groove into the rail. The concept described in this patent specification is used today for the manufacture of tram rails worldwide.

Appreciation

In 1892 he was made Knight of the Legion of Honor ( Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur ) and in 1912 promoted to Officer of the Legion of Honor ( Officier de la Légion d'honneur ).

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Association des Anciens Elèves du Lycée Charlemagne: Elie Broca (1814-1887).
  2. ^ Profile en coupe du rail inventé par Alphonse Loubat pour ses 'chemins de fer américains' (tramways hippomobiles). In: Kinnear Clarc and O. Chemin: Tramways - Construction et exploitation. Dunod, Paris, 1880, p. 116.
  3. ↑ a b Josette Desrues: En coche, en tram, en bus: le Paris-Saint-Germain, DISLAB, 2005, p. 102.
  4. ↑ German Reich Patent DRP Kl. 49 No. 9863 of September 23, 1879. Quoted in: Rolling mill for grooved rails and other profile iron ( Polytechnisches Journal, 1880, Volume 238, Table 2 and pages 23-24).
personal data
SURNAME Broca, George
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Broca, Alphonse Georges (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French tram engineer
DATE OF BIRTH February 3, 1849
PLACE OF BIRTH Algiers
DATE OF DEATH 1918