Hubert Gautier

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Portrait of Hubert Gautier

Hubert Gautier (also Henri Gautier ) (born August 21, 1660 in Nîmes , † September 27, 1737 in Paris ) was a French engineer and scientist. He wrote the first theoretical work on road construction and the first fundamental work on bridge construction.

Life

Gautier was the son of a Huguenot wool comb . After school in Nîmes, he first studied medicine in the Protestant Orange , where he obtained his doctorate in 1679 . Because of his interest in mathematics , he was active from 1686 to 1688 in the construction of Fort Vauban in Nîmes. After King Louis XIV had revoked religious freedom with the Edict of Fontainebleau , Gautier converted to Catholicism in 1689 . In the same year he became an engineer for the province of Languedoc . Until 1694 he was active in the construction of the still existing bridge in Coursan over the Aude , then he worked on various projects in Languedoc, including on the Canal du Midi . In 1713 he was appointed one of the first inspectors of bridge and road construction ( Inspecteur des ponts et chaussées ) and settled in Paris. After a further 18 years in the service of the Ponts et chaussées , he retired in 1731 at the age of 71.

plant

In 1693, in Toulouse, Gautier published the first textbook on road construction ( Traité de la construction des chemins ). In addition to methods of road drainage, he also describes the principles of Roman road construction . For the construction of the driveways, Gautier chose a rough base layer made of large, flat stones. This is followed by a leveling layer and a final top layer of fine broken gravel. The construction is framed by heavy curb stones. The driveway is guided on a small dam and can thus be effectively drained. The work was reprinted in Paris in 1716 and 1721.

His work Traité des ponts (Treatise on Bridge Construction) was published in Paris in 1716 ; it was also published several times up to 1768 and translated into German in 1759. It remains at least in France until the works of Émiland Gauthey from the years 1809-1813 the only fundamental work on bridge construction.

In 1721 he published his treatise Nouvelles conjectures sur le globe terrestre ( New reflections on the globe ) (which appeared as part of his Bibliothèque des philosophes et des sçavans ), in which he tried to use the traditional theory of the slow shaping of the earth's surface by rivers and Associate sediment deposits in the seas with Descartes' view that mountain formation occurs through comparatively sudden tectonic events.

His publications also include a number of smaller works:

  • Henri Gautier: Traité de la construction des chemins . Toulouse 1693.
  • H. Gautier: Traité de la construction des chemins . 2nd Edition. André Cailleau, Paris 1721. (Digitized from Google books, accessed January 31, 2012)
  • Henri Gautier: L'art de dessiner proprement les plans, porfils, elevations geometrales, et perspectives, soit d'architecture militaire ou civile: avec tous les secrets les plus rares pour faire les couleurs avec lesquelles les engineers representent les divers materiaux d'une place. 1697.
  • Henri Gautier: Traité des ponts . Paris 1716.
  • H. Gautier: Traité des Ponts . 2nd Edition. André Cailleau, Paris 1728, digitized from Google books, accessed on January 31, 2012
  • Henri Gautier: Dissertation sur les culées, voussoirs, piles et poussées des ponts. 1717.
  • Henri Gautier: Histoire de la ville de Nîmes et de ses antiquités. 1720.
  • Henri Gautier: Nouvelles conjectures on the globe de la terre. 1721.
  • Henri Gautier: Bibliothèque des philosophes et des sçavans tant anciens que modern . André Cailleau, Paris 1723. (Digitized from Google books, accessed January 31, 2012)
  • Henri Gautier: Dissertation on les projets de canaux de navigation, d'arrosage & pour la conduite des fontaines .
  • Henri Gautier: Dissertation on the conduite des mâts pour les vaisseaux du roi, depuis les forêts où on les abbat jusque dans les ports de mer auxquels on les destine. Paris.
  • Henri Gautier: Dissertaion qui résout les difficultés sur la poussée des voûtes & des arches, à différents surbaissements, sur les piles, les voussoirs, la charge des pilotis, le profil des murs qui doivent soutenir des terrasses, des remparts à telle hauteur donnée que ce puisse être . Paris.
  • Henri Gautier: Traité de l'art de laver les différents deseins qu'on envoie à la cour . Lyon.
  • Henri Gautier: Traité des armes à feu, tant des canons dont on se sert sur terre et sur mer, avec leurs proportions, comme des mortiers pour leurs jets de bombes, avec la manière de diriger leur portée . Lyon.
  • Henri Gautier: Traité des fortifications; avec l'examen de toutes le méthodes dont on s'est servi jusqu'alors pour fortifier les places . Lyon.
  • Henri Gautier: Plusieurs lettres ou nouvelles conjectures sur la peste, & sur tous les corps animés & inanimés . Paris.

literature

Web links

Commons : Henri Gautier  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Henning Natzschka: Road construction: design and construction technology . Vieweg + Teubner Verlag, Wiesbaden 2003, ISBN 3-519-15256-8 , pp. 9 .
  2. ^ Heinz W. Hallmann: Historical building research and use of materials in gardening and landscaping . BoD, Norderstedt 2005, ISBN 3-8334-1814-1 , p. 17 .
  3. ↑ The list is largely based on the French Wikipedia
personal data
SURNAME Gautier, Hubert
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Gautier, Henri
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French engineer
DATE OF BIRTH August 21, 1660
PLACE OF BIRTH Nîmes
DATE OF DEATH September 27, 1737
Place of death Paris