Alphonse Eléonor Sagebien (1807–1892) was a French

hydrological Hydrology () is the scientific study of the movement, distribution, and management of water on Earth and other planets, including the water cycle, water resources, and drainage basin sustainability. A practitioner of hydrology is called a hydro ...

engineer born in

Amiens Amiens (English: or ; ; , or ) is a city and Communes of France, commune in northern France, located north of Paris and south-west of Lille. It is the capital of the Somme (department), Somme Departments of France, department in the region ...

and the inventor of the Sagebien wheel - a device that made hydraulically powered systems much more efficient in extracting energy from moving water. Sagebien graduated in 1833 with a degree in engineering from the prestigious

École Centrale des Arts et Manufactures 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 ...

and worked primarily in

metallurgy Metallurgy is a domain of materials science and engineering that studies the physical and chemical behavior of metallic elements, their inter-metallic compounds, and their mixtures, which are known as alloys. Metallurgy encompasses both the ...

. He discovered many of the mineral seams still worked today in the French department of

Pas-de-Calais The Pas-de-Calais (, ' strait of Calais'; ; ) is a department in northern France named after the French designation of the Strait of Dover, which it borders. It has the most communes of all the departments of France, with 890, and is the ...

. After 1848, he shifted to hydrological engineering, designing and patenting the wheel that bears his name. This invention was able to extract 50% more energy from flowing water than previous paddle-based systems and is still used today. His invention received a number of awards both in France and abroad, include the gold medal at the 1878 Exhibitiion. Sagebien was also a municipal counsellor for Amiens from 1878 to 1888.

References

French engineers École Centrale Paris alumni 1807 births 1892 deaths {{France-engineer-stub