Jean Mercier
Encyclopedia
- To be distinguished from Jean Mercier (Hebraist)Jean Mercier (Hebraist)Jean Mercier, Latin Joannes Mercerus was a French Hebraist.He was a pupil of the less known François Vatable, and succeeded Vatable as professor of Hebrew at the Collège Royal. His students included Philippe du Plessis-Mornay, and Pierre Martinius who became professor at La Rochelle...
Jean Mercier (1901–1971), a Frenchman, was known as the father of the bladder-type hydraulic accumulator
Hydraulic accumulator
A 'hydraulic accumulator' is an energy storage device. It is a pressure storage reservoir in which a non-compressible hydraulic fluid is held under pressure by an external source. That external source can be a spring, a raised weight, or a compressed gas...
. Mercier fled France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
for the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
during the Nazi invasion, eventually settling in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. After meeting Edward M. Greer in 1940, the two founded Greer Hydraulics (in 1942) to produce aircraft hydraulic components.
In 1943, Jean Mercier recognized an opportunity for his bladder type accumulators in Hamilton Standard
Hamilton Standard
Hamilton Standard, an aircraft propeller parts supplier, was formed in 1929 when United Aircraft and Transport Corporation consolidated Hamilton Aero Manufacturing and Standard Steel Propeller into the Hamilton Standard Propeller Corporation. Other members of the corporation included Boeing,...
’s hydromatic propellers. They needed a device that would fit inside the dome of their propeller, and have the ability to store sufficient hydraulic fluid to "feather" the propeller on an engine failure that might be experienced in combat. It also had to be able to function at temperatures from −40 °F to +180 °F. There was a single insurmountable problem—weight, which was a problem since World War II aircraft were quite small. The use of a gas/oil separator, today called a bladder, solved the problem.
Greer and Mercier formed a patent
Patent
A patent is a form of intellectual property. It consists of a set of exclusive rights granted by a sovereign state to an inventor or their assignee for a limited period of time in exchange for the public disclosure of an invention....
company (Greer-Olaer) and Greer Hydraulics became the sole licensee, with the rights to continue development and to license other companies outside the U.S. From the early 1950s, bladder-type accumulators became the unit that was specified and used in almost every application where hydraulics was employed - machine tools, plastic machinery, circuit breakers, rock crushers, oil drilling, farm and road machinery, to name a few.
Greer Hydraulics was later acquired by Parker-Hannifin of Cleveland, Ohio.
Mercier was awarded the Franklin Institute
Franklin Institute
The Franklin Institute is a museum in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and one of the oldest centers of science education and development in the United States, dating to 1824. The Institute also houses the Benjamin Franklin National Memorial.-History:On February 5, 1824, Samuel Vaughn Merrick and...
's Certificate of Merit in 1951. He was also decorated Chevalier de la Legion 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...
by the French Republic.
External links
Jean Phillip Mercier 03:46, 25 January 2010 (UTC) (Grand Son)
Jean Phillip Mercier 03:46, 25 January 2010 (UTC) (Grand Son)