Philippe Lebon

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Philippe Lebon d'Humbersin

Philippe Lebon d'Humbersin (born May 29, 1767 in Brachay ; † December 1 or, according to other sources , December 2, 1804 in Paris ) was an engineer and the inventor of luminous gas .

Life

After finishing school, Philippe Lebon worked as an engineer at the École Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées , where he later taught as a professor of mechanics.

Lebon died tragically at the age of only 37 without being able to reap the fruits of his work himself. He was found murdered in the streets of Paris on the day of Napoleon's self-coronation , where he had been working on the illumination of the festivities. The circumstances remained unresolved.

plant

Commemorative plaque for Philippe Lebon at house number 12 rue Saint-Louis-en-l'Île in Paris

Invention of the gas lamp

Before 1800 it was quite dark in the cities at night. In the house there were only candles, torches and oil lamps . As early as the 18th century, coal gas could be obtained from hard coal . The French engineer Philipp Lebon presented the properties of the gas used to distill the wood in 1786 and received a patent on September 21, 1799 for a gas-powered, so-called "thermal lamp" which he presumably used for lighting and room heating. The first major application he installed in a Paris hotel was a central wood-burning stove for the distillation of hydrogen, which was fed into individual rooms via a system of pipes, where it was burned in a controlled manner using a shut-off valve.

First attempts with public gas lamps in Paris followed and revolutionized street lighting . Knowing the work of Lebon, William Murdoch , student and collaborator of James Watt , improved the gas-operated lights. In London, the first streets were lit with gas lamps from 1807 .

Invention of the gas engine

In 1801 Philippe Lebon applied for a patent for a gas engine . His gas engine was already equipped with an electric spark ignition . Lebon died in 1804 before he could properly present his invention.

Web links

Commons : Philippe Lebon  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ François Veillerette Philippe Lebon ou l'homme aux mains de lumière , éd Mourot, 1987, décès acte page 206 (8 ème arrondissement Paris, you paroisse Saint sacrement)
  2. ^ Ludovic Lalanne: Dictionnaire historique de la France
  3. ↑ a b WDR - radio feature ZeitZeichen on September 21, 2009
  4. ↑ Book: 100 Years of the Automobile, page 7. - Mercedes-Benz No. 199, 1/1986
personal data
SURNAME Lebon, Philippe
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Lebon d'Humbersin, Philippe
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French inventor and businessman
DATE OF BIRTH May 29, 1767
PLACE OF BIRTH Brachay
DATE OF DEATH December 1, 1804
Place of death Paris