Louis-Joseph Vicat

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Louis-Joseph Vicat

Louis-Joseph Vicat (born March 31, 1786 in Nevers , Nièvre , Bourgogne ; † April 10, 1861 in Grenoble , Isère ) was a French engineer who invented the artificial hydraulic lime, rediscovered the "Roman cement" and with his Work laid the foundations for the development of cement and lime mortar . He also carried out preparatory work on the air-jet spinning process, which was later perfected by John August Roebling, for the manufacture of suspension cables for suspension bridges .

Life

After visiting the École Centrale in Grenoble, he joined the Navy in Toulon at the age of 16, but soon returned to Grenoble. In 1804 he began his studies at the École polytechnique and in 1806 moved to the École Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées . In 1809 he became a second class engineer in Périgueux , where he designed and carried out his first road project, which was initially criticized as daring, until it was discovered that it followed the route of a previously unknown Roman aqueduct. In 1812 he was sent to Souillac to build the 180 m long bridge over the Dordogne , an occasionally raging river, which made it possible to expect great difficulties in the foundation of the bridge piers. Due to financial difficulties, construction lasted until 1822.

Simultaneously with his transfer to Souillac, he began his experiments with hydraulic limes in order to find a binding agent that would harden faster than the previously common mixtures of lime, ground bricks and iron slag. He did a lot of experimental research on cements, concrete and mortars, during which he invented artificial lime. In 1817 he published his results first in the Annales de chimie and in 1818 in his book Experimental Investigations on Building Limes, Concrete and Ordinary Mortar . This work caused quite a stir. The Académie des sciences commissioned three experts, MM. Prony, Gay-Lussac and Girard, to carry out a review, the results of which they presented in the following year with extremely positive ratings. Vicat thus laid the foundations for an understanding of both cement and lime mortar. After successfully demonstrating a number of tests, the Roads and Bridge Construction Commission approved the use of hydraulic lime on the Souillac bridge and the corresponding calculations for the bridge's foundations.

Vicat was also one of the first to observe and follow the periodic opening and closing of the joints on the clamped arches as a function of the temperature on the Dordogne bridge and thus gave impetus for the further development of the statics of the bridge arches.

In 1823 he was awarded a gold medal by the Society for the Promotion of National Industry for his research into producing a substance that is as stable in the air as stone. The following year - 1824 - he was appointed chief engineer, second class, and was commissioned to search for and provide suitable lime materials for canal construction in Brittany , and in the following year for the Canal du Nivernais and the Canal latéral à la Loire ( Loire Lateral Canal ) and finally for the Canal du Rhône au Rhin ( Rhine-Rhône Canal ).

In 1827 he was appointed chief first-class engineer and around this time commissioned by the bridge and road administration to examine the usability of the rock from around 900 French quarries. As early as 1828 he published the results of these investigations in his second book, Summary of the Positive Findings on the Quality, Selection and Usability of Pure Raw Materials for the Production of Mortar and Cement .

Marc Seguin , who had just built the suspension bridge between Tournon-sur-Rhône and Tain-l'Hermitage across the Rhone , was supposed to build his second suspension bridge with the Pont Marie in Argentat (Corrèze) across the Dordogne. Vicat was asked to lead the construction work, so that he was involved in the construction of this suspension bridge from 1828-29. He developed the air-jet spinning method for the suspension bridge's suspension cables. He then wrote a report on the suspension bridge, published in 1830, in which he also described rope production using the air-jet spinning process.

First concrete bridge, built by Louis and Joseph Vicat in 1855

From 1840 he discovered clinker, which made Portland cement possible. In 1852 he retired, but continued his research and experiments. For example, with the small bridge that he built with his son Joseph in the Jardin des Plantes in Grenoble in 1855 and which is considered to be the first concrete bridge at all, or with the studies published in 1857 on the physical causes of the destruction of hydraulic components by seawater.

Honors

Louis-Joseph Vicat was elected correspondent for the Académie des sciences (section de mécanique) on March 25, 1833. As an honor for his research work, he received a vase made of silver with a dedication from the city of Paris in 1841 . In 1846 he was appointed commander of the Legion of Honor and also received the award for the most important industrial invention of the past ten years. The times at which he was appointed inspector general for bridge and road construction and a member of the Academy of Sciences are unknown. In 1855 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences . In 1856 he received two prizes of 2000 francs each for his work from the Society for the Promotion of National Industry.

The name of Louis-Joseph Vicat was immortalized as one of the 72 names on the Eiffel Tower in Paris.

Aftermath in the present

His son Joseph (1821–1902) founded the French cement manufacturer Vicat in 1853, which is still family-owned today .

Louis-Joseph Vicat developed a number of test methods, some of which are still used today. His needle device for testing mortar samples is used in a modernized form based on DIN and EN standards as a Vicat needle for the start of solidification and as a Vicat needle device for testing cement or plaster of paris . In plastics technology there are devices for the Vicat method of determining the Vicat softening temperature (VST = Vicat softening temperature ) for determining the heat resistance .

Works (selection)

literature

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Dordogne bridge in Souillac. In: Structurae
  2. ↑ Souillac Bridge ; Klaus Stiglat bridges on the way: early iron and concrete bridges in Germany and France , p. 127
  3. ↑ "Although the air-jet spinning method for assembling the cables was already known and was strongly promoted by Louis Joseph Vicat, Chaley used the conventional assembly method with prefabricated parallel wire ropes at the Grand-Pont over the Saane in Friborg." Handbook bridges: designing, constructing, calculating, build and maintain ; edited by Gerhard Mehlhorn
  4. ↑ Les Membres de l'Académie des sciences depuis sa création (en 1666)
  5. ↑ Théodore Chateau: Technologie du bâtiment: spécialement destiné aux ingénieurs ... , Paris, 1863 (p. 364)
  6. ↑ Annales des ponts et chaussées: Mémoires et Documents ... , edition 26, part 1, volume 2, Paris, 1856
  7. ^ Illustration in Peter Marti, Orlando Monsch, Birgit Schilling: Ingenieur-Betonbau p. 26

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Vicat, Louis-Joseph
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French inventor
DATE OF BIRTH March 31, 1786
PLACE OF BIRTH Nevers
DATE OF DEATH April 10, 1861
Place of death Grenoble