Alexandre-Théodore Lavalley, (October 9, 1821 – July 20, 1892) was an engineer and French politician. Paul Borel and Lavalley were contractors of the

Suez Canal Company Suez ( ar, السويس '; ) is a seaport city (population of about 750,000 ) in north-eastern Egypt, located on the north coast of the Gulf of Suez (a branch of the Red Sea), near the southern terminus of the Suez Canal, having the same boun ...

who designed, built, and operated the dredging machines that finished excavation of the Suez Canal from 1864 to 1869 after the use of

forced labor Forced labour, or unfree labour, is any work relation, especially in modern or early modern history, in which people are employed against their will with the threat of destitution, detention, violence including death, or other forms of e ...

was disallowed.

Biography

Education

Alexandre Lavalley finished his preparatory studies in

Tours Tours ( , ) is one of the largest cities in the region of Centre-Val de Loire, France. It is the prefecture of the department of Indre-et-Loire. The commune of Tours had 136,463 inhabitants as of 2018 while the population of the whole metrop ...

, entered the École Polytechnique and left after studying

military engineering Military engineering is loosely defined as the art, science, and practice of designing and building military works and maintaining lines of military transport and military communications. Military engineers are also responsible for logistics b ...

in 1842. He resigned his commission and spent a few years in England, where he became a mechanic and acquired practical knowledge about machinery.

Engineering career

Photo of a dredge machine taken circa 1870 Upon returning to France, he joined Ernest Goüin & Cie, a company that built locomotives, where he was trusted to manage the locomotive plants. He also designed

lighthouses A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of physical structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lenses and to serve as a beacon for navigational aid, for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways. Lighthouses mar ...

on the Black Sea, created a

tunnel boring machine A tunnel boring machine (TBM), also known as a "mole", is a machine used to excavate tunnels with a circular cross section through a variety of soil and rock strata. They may also be used for microtunneling. They can be designed to bore thro ...

in Lithuania, and created a machine to dredge ports in Russia. Paul Borel and Lavalley were hired as subcontractors by the Suez Canal Company to finish the excavation of the Suez Canal. They were responsible for the design, construction, and operation of the dredging machines that finished the excavation from 1864–1869 after the use of corvee labor was disallowed by the Ottoman administrator of Egypt,

Ismail Ishmael ''Ismaḗl''; Classical/Qur'anic Arabic: إِسْمَٰعِيْل; Modern Standard Arabic: إِسْمَاعِيْل ''ʾIsmāʿīl''; la, Ismael was the first son of Abraham, the common patriarch of the Abrahamic religions; and is cons ...

. In 1876, he obtained a concession to work on the port of

Pointe des Galets The Pointe des Galets is a cape in the northwest of the island of Réunion, heading on the Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface. It is bou ...

in Réunion and to build a railroad linking the port to the interior of the island. In 1881, the British railway entrepreneur

Sir Edward Watkin Sir Edward William Watkin, 1st Baronet (26 September 1819 – 13 April 1901) was a British Member of Parliament and railway entrepreneur. He was an ambitious visionary, and presided over large-scale railway engineering projects to fulfil his b ...

and Lavalley were in the Anglo-French Submarine Railway Company that conducted exploratory work on both sides of the English Channel. On the English side a diameter Beaumont-English boring machine dug a pilot tunnel from Shakespeare Cliff. On the French side, a similar machine dug from Sangatte. The project was abandoned in May 1882, owing to British political and press campaigns asserting that a tunnel would compromise Britain's national defences.Wilson pp. 14–21 These early works were encountered more than a century later during the TML project.

Politician

Lavalley was elected on January 25, 1885, as a Senator representing

Calvados Calvados (, , ) is a brandy from Normandy in France, made from apples or pears, or from apples with pears. History In France Apple orchards and brewers are mentioned as far back as the 8th century by Charlemagne. The first known record of Nor ...

. He sat in the left of the Senate, but voted with the majority for the new military law and for the colonial policies. He was absent during the vote for the breakup of the

French Crown Jewels The French Crown Jewels (french: Joyaux de la Couronne de France) comprise the crowns, orb, sceptres, diadems and jewels that were symbols of Royal power between 752 and 1825. These were worn by many Kings and Queens of France as well as Empe ...

. Finally, Lavalley voted for the reestablishment of district elections (February 13, 1889), for a draft of the

Lisbonne Law The Law on the Freedom of the Press of 29 July 1881 (french: Loi sur la liberté de la presse du 29 juillet 1881), often called the Press Law of 1881 or the Lisbonne Law after its rapporteur, Eugène Lisbonne, is a law that defines the freedoms and ...

that would have restricted the freedom of the press, and against the procedure of the Senate against the general

Georges Ernest Boulanger Georges Ernest Jean-Marie Boulanger (29 April 1837 – 30 September 1891), nicknamed Général Revanche ("General Revenge"), was a French general and politician. An enormously popular public figure during the second decade of the Third Repub ...

Sources

Notes and references