Benoît Fourneyron (31 October 1802 – 31 July 1867) was a French

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 ...

, born in

Saint-Étienne Saint-Étienne (; Franco-Provençal: ''Sant-Etiève''), also written St. Etienne, is a city and the prefecture of the Loire département, in eastern-central France, in the Massif Central, southwest of Lyon, in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes regi ...

, Loire. Fourneyron made significant contributions to the development of

water turbine A water turbine is a rotary machine that converts kinetic energy and potential energy of water into mechanical work. Water turbines were developed in the 19th century and were widely used for industrial power prior to electrical grids. Now, t ...

s. Benoît Fourneyron was educated at the

École Nationale Supérieure des Mines de Saint-Étienne École or Ecole may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France * Éco ...

, a nearby engineering school that had recently opened. After he graduated in 1816, he spent the next few years in mines and

ironwork Ironwork is any weapon, artwork, utensil, or architectural feature made of iron, especially one used for decoration. There are two main types of ironwork: wrought iron and cast iron. While the use of iron dates as far back as 4000 BC, it was th ...

s. Around this time, a number of French engineers—including some of Fourneyron's former teachers—were starting to apply the mathematical techniques of modern science to the ancient mechanism called the

waterwheel A water wheel is a machine for converting the kinetic energy of flowing or falling water into useful forms of power, often in a watermill. A water wheel consists of a large wheel (usually constructed from wood or metal), with numerous blade ...

. For centuries, waterwheels had been used to convert the energy of streams into mechanical power, mostly for milling grain. But the new machines of the

Industrial Revolution The Industrial Revolution, sometimes divided into the First Industrial Revolution and Second Industrial Revolution, was a transitional period of the global economy toward more widespread, efficient and stable manufacturing processes, succee ...

required more power, and by the 1820s there was enormous interest in making waterwheels more efficient.

Fourneyron-style turbines

Using the proposal of a former teacher (

Claude Burdin Claude Burdin (; 19 March 1788 – 12 November 1873) was a French engineer. Born in Lépin-le-Lac, Savoie, when it was known as the Duchy of Savoy, he was professor at the school of mines, École nationale supérieure des mines de Saint-� ...

) as a guide, Fourneyron built in 1827, at age of 25, his first prototype for a new type of waterwheel, called a "turbine". (The term turbine is derived from the Greek word "τύρβη" for "whirling" or a "vortex".) In Fourneyron's design, the wheel was horizontal, unlike the vertical wheels in traditional waterwheels. This turbine used two sets of blades, curved in opposite directions, to get as much power as possible from the water's motion. Fourneyron won a 6,000 franc prize offered by the French Society for the Encouragement of Industry for the development of the first commercial hydraulic turbine. Over the next decade, Fourneyron built bigger and better turbines, learning from his mistakes after each new model. By 1837, he had a turbine capable of a fantastic 2,300 rotations per minute. On that model, the turbine's wheel was only one foot in diameter, and it weighed just 40 pounds. It operated at 80 percent efficiency. Within a few years, hundreds of factories used Fourneyron-style turbines. Other countries adopted the design to power their industrial machinery, too. Immediately successful, it powered industry in continental Europe and the U.S., notably the New England textile industry. In 1895 Fourneyron turbines were installed on the U.S. side of

Niagara Falls Niagara Falls is a group of three waterfalls at the southern end of Niagara Gorge, spanning the Canada–United States border, border between the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Ontario in Canada and the state of New York (s ...

to generate electric power. Fourneyron was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...

in 1861.

References

Bibliography

* 1802 births 1867 deaths People from Saint-Étienne Moderate Republicans (France) Members of the 1848 Constituent Assembly Members of Parliament for Loire French engineers Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Knights of the Legion of Honour {{France-engineer-stub

Fourneyron-style turbines

See also

References

Bibliography