Michel Graeff

Portrait published in 1888 by Antoine Meyer

Memorial plaque on the house where he was born, 19, rue du Sel, Séléstat

Michel Ignace Auguste Graeff (born March 11, 1812 in Sélestat , Alsace; † August 6, 1884 in Boisset-lès-Montrond , Loire department) was a French bridge and road construction engineer.

Life

Graeff was born to Nicolas Ignace Graeff, a private tax collector in the Séléstat district, and his wife Rosine Antoinette Mathieu. In 1832 he attended the Polytechnic School and left it two years later to attend the École des ponts et chaussées . In 1840 he became an engineer in Zabern .

Graeff has been involved in the preparations for the work in connection with the Paris-Strasbourg railway since his work in Zabern and later took over its construction management. In 1841 Zabern was connected to the railway network.

After his appointment as a senior civil engineer for the Loire department in 1856 , he was responsible for the design of the waterway.

In 1856 he became the assistant of Pierre Conte-Grandchamp , also bridge and road builder, and the engineer Pierre-Louis-Adrien de Montgolfier-Verpilleux in the Loire department . Under her leadership he realized the dam of the Gouffre d'Enfer near Saint-Étienne in the Furan . He got involved in the rehabilitation of the Forez plain by building a canal. He is also the author of canals and railways (1861).

The appointment in 1869 as a general inspector was followed ten years later by the board of the Conseil Général des Ponts et Chaussées . After four years as "First Engineer in France", during which he briefly headed the Ministry of Labor, he retired.

From November to December 1877 he was Minister for Public Works and in 1861 officer of the Legion of Honor .

source

• Assemblée National

Individual evidence

1. ^ Obituary , Im Centralblatt der Bauverwaltung , No. 48, November 29, 1884, p. 506, accessed on January 4, 2013.