Marc-René de Montalembert
Marc-René Marquis de Montalembert (born July 16, 1714 in Angoulême , † March 26, 1800 in Paris ) was a French engineer for weapons technology and fortress construction .
Life
Montalembert was involved in various campaigns in Italy , Flanders and Germany (sieges of Kehl and Philippsburg) between 1736 and 1741 and wrote numerous treatises for the Académie des Sciences , of which he became a member in 1747, during the following peace years. He also set up ammunition foundries in Périgord and Angoumois from his own resources , from which he supplied the French fleet with iron cannons and projectiles.
During the Seven Years' War he was French commissar for the Russian and Swedish troops for two years and led the reinforcement of the fortifications of Anklam and Stralsund . He was later sent to the islands of Aix and Oléron and fortified the latter according to the system of detached works he had developed .
His young wife ran a private theater in Paris, where she appointed Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges as conductor. He presumably made her pregnant.
He made a contribution to artillery by inventing the low frame mounts. Despite his old nobility, he was a staunch supporter of the French Revolution .
The engineer Marc-René de Montalembert died on March 26, 1800 in Paris at the age of almost 86 .
Significance for fortress construction
The ideas and intentions of Montalembert mainly influenced the New Prussian fortification manner. Detached forts and the use of the Tenaill system instead of the former bastion fortress were first implemented extensively in the Prussian fortress of Koblenz in the first half of the 19th century. Its most famous development are the so-called Montalembert Towers. The principle behind this was to distribute as many guns as possible with all-round effect on one or two floors. The lower level was vielwinklig (usually as a dodecagon formed) and the input ports therein covered by gun fire from correspondingly arranged loopholes. The upper, completely round floors usually offered space for 24 casemated guns each . The roof structure consisted of a parapet and a final tower attachment for observation and rifle fire. The work was surrounded by a dry ditch (detailed description with several sketches in Zastrow). Such a tower was first erected in Prussia in 1802 by Major General Christian Reinhard von Lindener in the fortress Cosel in Upper Silesia. Others were created, for example, in the Moselweißer Schanze in Koblenz or as a further development by General von Aster in the Königsberg fortress , there designed as Dohnaturm and Wrangelturm .
Works
- La fortification perpendicular . Paris 1776 ff .; new edition, that. 1796, (11 volumes)
- Johann Gottfried von Hoyer : Defense stronger than attack . Berlin 1819 (2 volumes; some translations of the previous one).
Individual evidence
- ↑ The Chevalier de Saint-Georges Dominique-René de Lerma The Black Perspective in Music Vol. 4, No. 1 (Spring, 1976), pp. 3-21 Published by: Foundation for Research in the Afro-American Creative Arts. JSTOR 1214399
- ↑ Alexander von Zastrow: History of the permanent fortification . 3. Edition. Leipzig 1854, p. 268–271 (Above Montalembert's casemated towers).
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Montalembert, Marc-René de |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Montalembert, Marc-René Marquis de |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | French engineer for weapons technology and fortress construction |
| DATE OF BIRTH | July 16, 1714 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Angoulême |
| DATE OF DEATH | March 26, 1800 |
| Place of death | Paris |