ENGINEER

Fulgence Bienvenüe

1852 - 1936

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Fulgence Bienvenüe (French pronunciation: [fylʒɑ̃s bjɛ̃v(ə)ny]; 27 January 1852 – 3 August 1936) was a French civil engineer, best known for his role in the construction of the Paris Métro, and has been called "Le Père du Métro" (Father of the Metro).: 162  A native of Uzel in Brittany, and the son of a notary, in 1872 Bienvenüe graduated from the École Polytechnique as a civil engineer: 150  and the same year he began working for the Department of Bridges and Roads at Alençon.: 150  His first assignment was the construction of new railway lines in the Mayenne area, in the course of which his left arm had to be amputated after being crushed in a construction accident. In 1886, Bienvenüe moved on to Paris to design and supervise the construction of aqueducts for the city, drawing water from the rivers Aube and Loire.: 151  Next, he built a cable railway near the Place de la République and created the park of Buttes-Chaumont.: 151  Paris city officials selected Bienvenüe to become chief engineer for the Paris Métro in 1896. He designed a special way of building new tunnels which allowed the swift repaving of the roads above; this involved (among other things) building the crown of the tunnel first and the floor last, the reverse of the usual method at that time.: 151, 162  Bienvenüe has the credit for the mostly swift and relatively uneventful construction of the Métro through the difficult and heterogenous Parisian soils and rocks.: 150–1, 162  He came up with the idea of freezing wet and unstable soil in order to permit the drilling of tunnels. Read more on Wikipedia

His biography is available in different languages on Wikipedia. Fulgence Bienvenüe is the 289th most popular engineer (down from 272nd in 2019), the 4,461st most popular biography from France (down from 4,290th in 2019) and the 56th most popular French Engineer.

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Among ENGINEERS

Among engineers, Fulgence Bienvenüe ranks 289 out of 389Before him are Pierre-François Bouchard, Eugene Polley, Friedrich L. Bauer, Charles Joseph Minard, Christopher Cockerell, and Wilhelm Nusselt. After him are Marc René, marquis de Montalembert, William Froude, Hideo Itokawa, Burt Rutan, Viktor Kozin, and Joseph Bazalgette.

Most Popular Engineers in Wikipedia

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1852, Fulgence Bienvenüe ranks 102Before him are János Csernoch, George Moore, Dmitry Mamin-Sibiryak, Joaquín Sánchez de Toca, Curt von François, and Felix Graf von Bothmer. After him are Daniel De Leon, Johan Ramstedt, Orest Khvolson, Abdülhak Hâmid Tarhan, Lin Shu, and Victoriano Guisasola y Menéndez. Among people deceased in 1936, Fulgence Bienvenüe ranks 156Before him are Duchess Helene of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Kamala Nehru, Henry B. Walthall, Manuel Goded Llopis, Uchida Kōsai, and Marilyn Miller. After him are Eugène Grisot, Vilho Lampi, Ludwig von Falkenhausen, Urani Rumbo, Lola Mora, and Hermann Hirt.

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In France

Among people born in France, Fulgence Bienvenüe ranks 4,461 out of 6,770Before him are Saint-Pol-Roux (1861), Jean Richard (1921), Louis Garrel (1983), Erwin Vandendaele (1945), Henri Hubert (1872), and Eugène Guillevic (1907). After him are Bernard Schmetz (1904), Joseph Wresinski (1917), Jean de Sponde (1557), Maurice Lafont (1927), Jean-Claude Gaudin (1939), and Philippe Néricault Destouches (1680).

Among ENGINEERS In France

Among engineers born in France, Fulgence Bienvenüe ranks 56Before him are Ernest Goüin (1815), Albert Auguste Perdonnet (1801), Jean-Augustin Barral (1819), Émile Lemoine (1840), Pierre-François Bouchard (1771), and Charles Joseph Minard (1781). After him are Marc René, marquis de Montalembert (1714), Charles Combes (1801), Louis Armand (1905), Octave Chanute (1832), and Julien Simon-Chautemps (1978).