) was a French engineer

Engineer

An engineer is a professional practitioner of engineering, concerned with applying scientific knowledge, mathematics and ingenuity to develop solutions for technical problems. Engineers design materials, structures, machines and systems while considering the limitations imposed by practicality,...

 and electrician

Electrician

An electrician is a tradesman specializing in electrical wiring of buildings, stationary machines and related equipment. Electricians may be employed in the installation of new electrical components or the maintenance and repair of existing electrical infrastructure. Electricians may also...

 who worked with Zénobe Gramme

Zénobe Gramme

Zénobe Théophile Gramme was a Belgian electrical engineer. He invented the Gramme machine, a type of direct current dynamo capable of generating smoother and much higher voltages than the dynamos known to that point.In 1873 he and Hippolyte Fontaine accidentally discovered that the device was...

 on the development of the Gramme machine

Gramme machine

A Gramme machine, Gramme ring, Gramme magneto, or Gramme dynamo is an electrical generator which produces direct current, named for its Belgian inventor, Zénobe Gramme, and was built as either a dynamo or a magneto. It was the first generator to produce power on a commercial scale for industry...

 (the first industrially viable electrical generator

Electrical generator

In electricity generation, an electric generator is a device that converts mechanical energy to electrical energy. A generator forces electric charge to flow through an external electrical circuit. It is analogous to a water pump, which causes water to flow...

), and whose contributions were essential to the creation of the dynamo

Dynamo

- Engineering :* Dynamo, a magnetic device originally used as an electric generator* Dynamo theory, a theory relating to magnetic fields of celestial bodies* Solar dynamo, the physical process that generates the Sun's magnetic field- Software :...

. He was the first to transmit electricity via electrical wires.

During the Franco-Prussian War

Franco-Prussian War

The Franco-Prussian War or Franco-German War, often referred to in France as the 1870 War was a conflict between the Second French Empire and the Kingdom of Prussia. Prussia was aided by the North German Confederation, of which it was a member, and the South German states of Baden, Württemberg and...

 of 1870-1871, Fontaine managed the production of cannons in Paris. Colleagues he met in this position recommended him to Zenobe Gramme, and in 1871, Fontaine was hired to administer the newly-established Société des Machines magnéto-électriques Gramme, a corporation dedicated to the development of the Gramme machine. In this role, he accompanied Gramme to the Weltausstellung 1873 Wien

Weltausstellung 1873 Wien

]The Weltausstellung 1873 Wien was the large World exposition was held in 1873 in the Austria–Hungarian capital of Vienna. Its motto was Kultur und Erziehung ....

, where he demonstrated the reversibility of the electrical generator and the transmission of electricity over a two-kilometre distance via copper wiring.

In 1881, he helped organize the Exposition internationale d'Électricité

International Exposition of Electricity, Paris

The first International Exposition of Electricity in Paris ran from August 15, 1881 through to November 15, 1881 at the Palais de l'Industrie on the Champs-Elysees. It served to display the advances in electrical technology since the small electrical display at the 1878 Universal Exposition...

 in Paris, which hosted the first international congress of electricians; in response, the French government inducted him into the Légion d'honneur

Légion d'honneur

The Legion of Honour, or in full the National Order of the Legion of Honour is a French order established by Napoleon Bonaparte, First Consul of the Consulat which succeeded to the First Republic, on 19 May 1802...

.

He is buried in Cimetière du Montparnasse.

External links

• Lycée Hippolyte Fontaine in Dijon