Jean Aubert was a French engineer. In 1961, he used the idea of the German engineer

Julius Greve Julius may refer to: People * Julius (name), a masculine given name and surname (includes a list of people with the name) * Julius (nomen), the name of a Roman family (includes a list of Ancient Romans with the name) ** Julius Caesar (100– ...

from the last

century A century is a period of 100 years or 10 decades. Centuries are numbered ordinally in English and many other languages. The word ''century'' comes from the Latin ''centum'', meaning ''one hundred''. ''Century'' is sometimes abbreviated as c. ...

to describe a ''pente d'eau'' (), which was a way of moving boats up the gradient of a canal without locks. The design consisted of a sloping channel, through which a wedge of water on which the boat was floating could be pushed up an incline. This concept was used in both the

Montech water slope The Montech water slope is a type of canal inclined plane built on the Canal de Garonne, in the commune of Montech, Tarn-et-Garonne, Southwest France. It is managed by the publicly owned Voies navigables de France and by-passes a series of five L ...

and the

Fonserannes water slope The Fonseranes Water Slope () is a disused inclined plane on the Canal du Midi parallel to the Fonseranes Locks. It has a rise of and a slope of 5°. This technique for a water slope was described by the French engineer Jean Aubert in 1961. ...

Education

Lycée Louis-le-Grand The Lycée Louis-le-Grand (), also referred to simply as Louis-le-Grand or by its acronym LLG, is a public Lycée (French secondary school, also known as sixth form college) located on Rue Saint-Jacques (Paris), rue Saint-Jacques in central Par ...

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 ...

. *1913 -

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 ...

. Soon left for service in

First world war World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

. Returned in 1919. *1920-1922 -

École nationale des ponts et chaussées École nationale des ponts et chaussées (; ; abbr. ENPC), also nicknamed Ponts (), formerly known as École des Ponts ParisTech (), is a grande école in the field of science, engineering and technology, of the Polytechnic Institute of Paris, a ...

. *

University of Paris The University of Paris (), known Metonymy, metonymically as the Sorbonne (), was the leading university in Paris, France, from 1150 to 1970, except for 1793–1806 during the French Revolution. Emerging around 1150 as a corporation associated wit ...

(Bachelor of law).

Career

*1922-1932 - Engineer in charge of the navigation works in

. *1932-1961 - Professor in the Chair of Internal Navigation at the

. () *1933-1945 - General manager and later chairman of the Compagnie Nationale du Rhône. *1945-1953 - Chairman of the electricity board of the

SNCF The Société nationale des chemins de fer français (, , SNCF ) is France's national State-owned enterprise, state-owned railway company. Founded in 1938, it operates the Rail transport in France, country's national rail traffic along with th ...

*1949-1967 - Chairman of the Rhine Navigation Company *years unknown - Chairman of the

Société de Construction des Batignolles The Société de Construction des Batignolles was a civil engineering company of France created in 1871 as a public limited company from the 1846 limited partnership of ''Ernest Gouin et Cie.''. Initially founded to construct locomotives, the com ...

. *years unknown - President, Societe des Ingenieurs Civils de France. *years unknown - Inspecteur Général des Ponts et Chaussées *1966-unknown - Consulting engineer and honorary chairman of

Spie Batignolles Spie Batignolles is a French construction company based in Neuilly-sur-Seine. The company provides building and infrastructure construction in France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Spain, Portugal and Switzerland. Company history Ernest Goüin fou ...

. *Chairman of several other companies.

Publications

*In 1919 he published ''La Probabilité dans les tires de guerre'' and was awarded the Pierson-Perrim prize by the

Académie des 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 ...

in 1922. *His article ''Philosophie de la pente d'eau'' appeared in the journal Travaux in 1984 when he was 90 years old. *In 1961 he published his revolutionary ideas on the pente d'eau, or

water slope A water slope () is a type of canal inclined plane built to carry boats from a canal or river at one elevation up or down to a canal or river at another elevation. History In 1885, German engineer Julius Greve published drafts for water slopes ...

, which was designed to transfer barges from one level to another without the use of locks.

Awards

Croix de Guerre The (, ''Cross of War'') is a military decoration of France. It was first created in 1915 and consists of a square-cross medal on two crossed swords, hanging from a ribbon with various degree pins. The decoration was first awarded during World ...

in 1916. *

: Prix Pierson-Perrim 1922. *Awarded the Caméré prize in 1934 by the

for a new type of movable dam. * Ingénieur Général des Ponts et Chaussées 1951, *Commandeur de la

Légion d'honneur 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 ...

1960.

Principle works

*Construction of the Pont Edouard-Herriort on the

Rhône The Rhône ( , ; Occitan language, Occitan: ''Ròse''; Franco-Provençal, Arpitan: ''Rôno'') is a major river in France and Switzerland, rising in the Alps and flowing west and south through Lake Geneva and Southeastern France before dischargi ...

Lyon Lyon (Franco-Provençal: ''Liyon'') is a city in France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of the French Alps, southeast of Paris, north of Marseille, southwest of Geneva, Switzerland, north ...

. *Design and construction of the

Génissiat dam The Génissiat Dam ( French: ''Barrage de Génissiat'') is a hydroelectric dam on the Rhône in France near the village of Injoux-Génissiat. Construction began in 1937, but was delayed by World War II, and the dam did not start generating power ...

and Lonzères-Mondragon dam on the

. *Conception and design of the Denouval dam on the

Seine The Seine ( , ) is a river in northern France. Its drainage basin is in the Paris Basin (a geological relative lowland) covering most of northern France. It rises at Source-Seine, northwest of Dijon in northeastern France in the Langres plat ...

near Andrésy, completed in 1980.

References