Benoît Fourneyron (October 31, 1802 – July 31, 1867) was a
FrenchFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
engineerEngineers are concerned with developing economical and safe solutions to practical problems, by applying mathematics and scientific knowledge while considering technical constraints. The term is derived from the Latin root "ingenium," meaning "cleverness"...
, born in
Saint-ÉtienneSaint-Étienne is a city in eastern central France.It lies 60 km southwest of Lyon in the Rhône-Alpes region and is the capital of the Loire département. It is situated in the Massif Central.-Geography:...
. Fourneyron significantly contributed to the development of
water turbinesA water turbine is a rotary engine that takes energy from moving water.Water turbines were developed in the nineteenth century and were widely used for industrial power prior to electrical grids. Now they are mostly used for electric power generation...
.
Benoît Fourneyron was educated at the New School of Mines, a nearby engineering school that had recently opened. After he graduated in 1816, he spent the next few years in
minesMining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the earth, usually from an ore body, vein or seam. Materials recovered by mining include base metals, precious metals, iron, uranium, coal, diamonds, limestone, oil shale, rock salt and potash...
and
ironworkIronwork is any weapon, artwork, utensil or architectural feature made of iron especially used for decoration. There are two main types of ironwork wrought iron and cast iron. While the use of iron dates as far back as 4000BC, it was the Hittites who first knew how to extract it and develop weapons...
s.
Around this time, a number of French engineers -- including some of Fourneyron's former teachers -- were starting to apply the mathematical techniques of modern science to the ancient mechanism called the waterwheel.
For centuries, waterwheels had been used to convert the energy of streams into mechanical power, mostly for milling grain.
Benoît Fourneyron (October 31, 1802 – July 31, 1867) was a
FrenchFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
engineerEngineers are concerned with developing economical and safe solutions to practical problems, by applying mathematics and scientific knowledge while considering technical constraints. The term is derived from the Latin root "ingenium," meaning "cleverness"...
, born in
Saint-ÉtienneSaint-Étienne is a city in eastern central France.It lies 60 km southwest of Lyon in the Rhône-Alpes region and is the capital of the Loire département. It is situated in the Massif Central.-Geography:...
. Fourneyron significantly contributed to the development of
water turbinesA water turbine is a rotary engine that takes energy from moving water.Water turbines were developed in the nineteenth century and were widely used for industrial power prior to electrical grids. Now they are mostly used for electric power generation...
.
Benoît Fourneyron was educated at the New School of Mines, a nearby engineering school that had recently opened. After he graduated in 1816, he spent the next few years in
minesMining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the earth, usually from an ore body, vein or seam. Materials recovered by mining include base metals, precious metals, iron, uranium, coal, diamonds, limestone, oil shale, rock salt and potash...
and
ironworkIronwork is any weapon, artwork, utensil or architectural feature made of iron especially used for decoration. There are two main types of ironwork wrought iron and cast iron. While the use of iron dates as far back as 4000BC, it was the Hittites who first knew how to extract it and develop weapons...
s.
Around this time, a number of French engineers -- including some of Fourneyron's former teachers -- were starting to apply the mathematical techniques of modern science to the ancient mechanism called the waterwheel.
For centuries, waterwheels had been used to convert the energy of streams into mechanical power, mostly for milling grain. But the new machines of the
Industrial RevolutionThe Industrial Revolution was a period from the 18th to the 19th century where major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, and transport had a profound effect on the socioeconomic and cultural conditions in the United Kingdom. The changes subsequently spread throughout Europe, North...
required more power, and by the 1820s there was enormous interest in making waterwheels more efficient.
Using one of his former teacher's proposals as a guide, Fourneyron built in 1827, at age of 25 years, his first prototype for a new type of waterwheel, called a "turbine". (The term turbine is derived from the Latin word for a spinning top). In Fourneyron's design, the wheel was horizontal, unlike the vertical wheels in traditional waterwheels. This turbine used two sets of blades, curved in opposite directions, to get as much power as possible from the water's motion. Fourneyron won a 6,000 franc prize offered by the French Society for the Encouragement of Industry for the development of the first commercial hydraulic turbine.
Over the next decade, Fourneyron built bigger and better turbines, learning from his mistakes after each new model. By 1837, he had a turbine capable of a fantastic 2,300 rotations per minute. On that model, the turbine's wheel was only one foot in diameter, and it weighed just 40 pounds. It operated at 80 percent efficiency.
Within a few years, hundreds of factories used Fourneyron-style turbines. Other countries adopted the design to power their industrial machinery, too. Immediately successful, it powered industry in continental Europe and the U.S., notably the New England textile industry. In 1895 Fourneyron turbines were installed on the U.S. side of
Niagara FallsThe Niagara Falls are voluminous waterfalls on the Niagara River, straddling the international border between the Canadian province of Ontario and the U.S. state of New York...
to generate electric power.