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Alphonse Couvreux (1820 – July 1890) was a French public works contractor, known for inventing the bucket chain excavator for which he filed a patent in May 1860.
The bucket chain excavator was used to remove great amounts of earth for the construction of railroads and the Suez Canal. The first documented use of the machine on land was in 1859. Couvreux used some of his machines to excavate material for the Ardennes Railroad. About 8 million cubic yards of material was excavated from the Suez Canal by seven of his machines during a portion of its construction from 1863 to 1868. Some of Couvreux's machines were used in the early failed French attempt to build the
Bulletin de l’Association des anciens élèves de l’École supérieure de commerce de Paris.
N°90, July 1890, pp. 109–110. {{DEFAULTSORT:Couvreux, Alphonse 19th-century French inventors 1820 births 1890 deaths Suez Canal
Alphonse Couvreux (1820 – July 1890) was a French public works contractor, known for inventing the bucket chain excavator for which he filed a patent in May 1860.
The bucket chain excavator was used to remove great amounts of earth for the construction of railroads and the Suez Canal. The first documented use of the machine on land was in 1859. Couvreux used some of his machines to excavate material for the Ardennes Railroad. About 8 million cubic yards of material was excavated from the Suez Canal by seven of his machines during a portion of its construction from 1863 to 1868. Some of Couvreux's machines were used in the early failed French attempt to build the Panama Canal
The Panama Canal ( es, Canal de Panamá, link=no) is an artificial waterway in Panama that connects the Atlantic Ocean with the Pacific Ocean and divides North and South America. The canal cuts across the Isthmus of Panama and is a condui ...
. The bucket chain excavator is still used in open pit mines and quarries
A quarry is a type of open-pit mine in which dimension stone, rock, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, gravel, or slate is excavated from the ground. The operation of quarries is regulated in some jurisdictions to reduce their envir ...
. A scale model of one of his 1859 machines is located in the Museum of Arts and Trades in Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...
.
References
Other sources
* Brochure ''De l'inventeur à l'entrepreneur, histoire de brevets'',Musée des Arts et Métiers
The Musée des Arts et Métiers () (French for Museum of Arts and Crafts) is an industrial design museum in Paris that houses the collection of the Conservatoire national des arts et métiers, which was founded in 1794 as a repository for the pr ...
(Paris), 2008.
Bulletin de l’Association des anciens élèves de l’École supérieure de commerce de Paris.
N°90, July 1890, pp. 109–110. {{DEFAULTSORT:Couvreux, Alphonse 19th-century French inventors 1820 births 1890 deaths Suez Canal