Auguste Rateau (; 13 October 1863 – 13 January 1930) was an

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who Invention, invent, design, build, maintain and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials. They aim to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while ...

and

industrialist A business magnate, also known as an industrialist or tycoon, is a person who is a powerful entrepreneur and investor who controls, through personal enterprise ownership or a dominant shareholding position, a firm or industry whose goods or ser ...

born in

Royan Royan (; in the Saintongeais dialect; ) is a commune and town in the south-west of France, in the Departments of France, department of Charente-Maritime in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region. Capital of the Côte de Beauté, Royan is one of the mai ...

, France, specializing in

turbine A turbine ( or ) (from the Greek , ''tyrbē'', or Latin ''turbo'', meaning vortex) is a rotary mechanical device that extracts energy from a fluid flow and converts it into useful work. The work produced can be used for generating electrical ...

Biography

After studies, first at the

École Polytechnique (, ; also known as Polytechnique or l'X ) is a ''grande école'' located in Palaiseau, France. It specializes in science and engineering and is a founding member of the Polytechnic Institute of Paris. The school was founded in 1794 by mat ...

and then at the École des Mines de Paris, he began his career as a teacher at the École des Mines de Saint-Étienne from 1888 to 1897. He then embarked on an industrial career exploiting turbines. He manufactured fans for mines, blowers for steel mills, water pumps, and

steam turbine A steam turbine or steam turbine engine is a machine or heat engine that extracts thermal energy from pressurized steam and uses it to do mechanical work utilising a rotating output shaft. Its modern manifestation was invented by Sir Charles Par ...

s for ships. To this end, he created a design office in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

and, in 1903, the ''Société pour l’exploitation des appareils Rateau'', which moved in 1917 to La Courneuve where he opened a

factory A factory, manufacturing plant or production plant is an industrial facility, often a complex consisting of several buildings filled with machinery, where workers manufacture items or operate machines which process each item into another. Th ...

two years later. The company has since been integrated into

Alstom Alstom SA () is a French multinational rolling stock manufacturer which operates worldwide in rail transport markets. It is active in the fields of passenger transportation, signaling, and locomotives, producing high-speed, suburban, regional ...

, and La Courneuve's premises are still operated by GE Power Service. This entity manages the maintenance of turbomachines, turbo-pumps and turbocompressors installed on nuclear, thermal and industrial sites in France and in some parts of the world. In 1928 he founded the ''

Association Française de Normalisation Association Française de Normalisation (AFNOR, English: French Standardization Association) is a Paris-based standards organization and a :ISO member bodies, member body for France at the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). The ...

'', the French national organization for

standardization Standardization (American English) or standardisation (British English) is the process of implementing and developing technical standards based on the consensus of different parties that include firms, users, interest groups, standards organiza ...

, and served as president. Rateau was a

Commander Commander (commonly abbreviated as Cmdr.) is a common naval officer rank as well as a job title in many army, armies. Commander is also used as a rank or title in other formal organizations, including several police forces. In several countri ...

of the

Legion of Honour The National Order of the Legion of Honour ( ), formerly the Imperial Order of the Legion of Honour (), is the highest and most prestigious French national order of merit, both military and Civil society, civil. Currently consisting of five cl ...

() and a member of the

French Academy of Sciences The French Academy of Sciences (, ) is a learned society, founded in 1666 by Louis XIV at the suggestion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, to encourage and protect the spirit of French Scientific method, scientific research. It was at the forefron ...

(). {{DEFAULTSORT:Rateau, Auguste 1863 births 1930 deaths People from Royan 20th-century French engineers 20th-century French inventors Steam turbines Turbines Members of the French Academy of Sciences École Polytechnique alumni Commanders of the Legion of Honour Mines Paris - PSL alumni