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

Julius Greve The gens Julia (''gēns Iūlia'', ) was one of the most prominent patrician (ancient Rome), patrician families in ancient Rome. Members of the gens attained the highest dignities of the state in the earliest times of the Roman Republic, Republic ...

from the last

century A century is a period of 100 years. 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. A centennial ...

to describe a ''pente d'eau'', ( en,

water slope A water slope (french: Pente d'eau) 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 draf ...

) 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 and the Fonserannes water slopes.

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 in central Paris. It was founded in the ...

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. ...

. *1913 -

École Polytechnique École 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 The Seine ( , ) is a river in northern Franc ...

. Soon left for service in

First world war World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fig ...

. Returned in 1919. *1920-1922 -

École nationale des ponts et chaussées École 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 * École, Savoi ...

. *

University of Paris The University of Paris (french: link=no, Université de Paris), Metonymy, metonymically known as the Sorbonne (), was the leading university in Paris, France, active from 1150 to 1970, with the exception between 1793 and 1806 under the French Revo ...

(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

. ( en,

National school of Bridges and Roads National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, ce ...

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

Société Nationale des Chemins de fer Français The Société nationale des chemins de fer français (; abbreviated as SNCF ; French for "National society of French railroads") is France's national state-owned railway company. Founded in 1938, it operates the country's national rail traffic ...

*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. *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 (French: ''Académie des 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 research. It was at the ...

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

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

Awards

Croix de Guerre The ''Croix de Guerre'' (, ''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 awa ...

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 (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon B ...

1960.

Principle works

*Construction of the Pont Edouard-Herriort on the

Rhône The Rhône ( , ; wae, Rotten ; frp, Rôno ; oc, Ròse ) is a major river in France and Switzerland, rising in the Alps and flowing west and south through Lake Geneva and southeastern France before discharging into the Mediterranean Sea. At Ar ...

Lyon Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of ...

. *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 u ...

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 plate ...

near Andrésy, completed in 1980.

References