Le lieutenant-colonel Joseph Albert Deport - Paul Jobert

Joseph-Albert Deport (September 17, 1846 – November 1, 1926) was a French officer and engineer best known as one of designers of the

Canon de 75 modèle 1897 The French 75 mm field gun is a Quick-firing gun, quick-firing field artillery piece adopted in March 1898. Its official French designation was: Matériel de 75 mm Mle 1897. It was commonly known as the French 75, simply the 75 and S ...

Biography

He was born on September 17, 1846, in Saint-Loup-sur-Semouse. He attended 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 ...

in 1866–1868. He began his career of an artillery officer in 1870 during the

Franco-Prussian War The Franco-Prussian War or Franco-German War, often referred to in France as the War of 1870, was a conflict between the Second French Empire and the North German Confederation led by the Kingdom of Prussia. Lasting from 19 July 1870 to 28 Janua ...

; wounded in combat, he was made a cavaler of the Legion of Honor. After the war he rose up in ranks until appointed director of the

Atelier de Construction de Puteaux An atelier () is the private workshop or studio of a professional artist in the fine or decorative arts or an architect, where a principal master and a number of assistants, students, and apprentices can work together producing fine art or vi ...

state arsenal. There he was promoted to lieutenant-colonel and started the design process of the quick-firing 75-mm gun that was later designated modèle 1897. However, he resigned from the French Army in 1894 in order to move to the private industry after he was passed up for further promotion, so he did not participate in the further design of the gun. His most important invention at the Société des forges de Châtillon-Commentry-Neuves-Maisons, where he worked afterwards, was the now-universally adopted split-trail carriage for artillery pieces, patented in 1907-1908, and his most important design was the first split-trail gun in the world, Italian Cannone da 75/27 modello 11 used in both WWI and WWII. He died on November 1, 1926.

References

External links

Joseph-Albert Deport
at the Digital Mechanism and Gear Library * http://saint-loup.chez-alice.fr/Saintloup/deport.html École Polytechnique alumni 1846 births 1926 deaths French military engineers {{France-mil-bio-stub