Ernest Goüin (; 22 July 1815 in
Tours
Tours ( , ) is one of the largest cities in the region of Centre-Val de Loire, France. It is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Indre-et-Loire. The Communes of France, commune of Tours had 136,463 ...
– 24 March 1885 in Paris
) was a French
civil engineer
A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering – the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructure while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing ...
and
industrialist
A business magnate, also known as a tycoon, is a person who has achieved immense wealth through the ownership of multiple lines of enterprise. The term characteristically refers to a powerful entrepreneur or investor who controls, through perso ...
. In 1846 he founded
Ernest Goüin & Cie. (after 1871 ''
Société de Construction des Batignolles
The Société de Construction des Batignolles was a civil engineering company of France created in 1871 as a public limited company from the 1846 limited partnership of ''Ernest Gouin et Cie.''. Initially founded to construct locomotives, the com ...
''); the company initially built locomotives, and diversified into bridge building and railway construction projects. His name is one of the
72 names inscribed on the Eiffel Tower.
Biography
Born on 20/22 July 1815,
second son of Édouard Goüin, Ernest Goüin came from an established family of distinguished bankers and traders.
He was educated at the
Ecole Polytechnique, and had achieved the military rank of major, when in 1836 he resigned his commission and began to training in civil engineering at the
École nationale des ponts et chaussées
École may refer to:
* an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée)
* École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France
* École, Savoi ...
He then studied engineering in England, learning at the railway workshops there, and subsequently was responsible for monitoring the construction of locomotives for the
Compagnie du chemin de fer de Paris à Orléans
The ''Compagnie du chemin de fer de Paris à Orléans'' (PO) was an early French railway company.
It merged with the '' Chemins de fer du Midi'' to form the ''Chemins de fer de Paris à Orléans et du Midi'' (PO-Midi) in 1934. In 1938 the PO-Mid ...
at the workshops of the
Sharp Brothers in Manchester.
Between 1839 and 1845 he was manager of a railway workshops in Paris on the Paris to St. Germain line; in 1846 he founded his own company ''Ernest Gouin et Cie.'' with backing from
James de Rothschild James de Rothschild may refer to:
* James de Rothschild (politician) (1878–1957), French-born British politician and philanthropist
* James Mayer de Rothschild
James Mayer de Rothschild, Baron de Rothschild (born Jakob Mayer Rothschild; 15 M ...
, and began locomotive construction. An economic depression in 1847 affected orders for locomotives and forced Goüin to diversify; as a result his company began manufacturing structural metal constructions, and in 1852 his company built became the first metal bridge builder in France, with a bridge in
Asnières.
Later he established a shipyard in
Nantes
Nantes (, , ; Gallo: or ; ) is a city in Loire-Atlantique on the Loire, from the Atlantic coast. The city is the sixth largest in France, with a population of 314,138 in Nantes proper and a metropolitan area of nearly 1 million inhabita ...
. His company became public in 1871 as
Société de Construction des Batignolles
The Société de Construction des Batignolles was a civil engineering company of France created in 1871 as a public limited company from the 1846 limited partnership of ''Ernest Gouin et Cie.''. Initially founded to construct locomotives, the com ...
, and through it he became involved in railway construction, including crossings of the
Pyrenees
The Pyrenees (; es, Pirineos ; french: Pyrénées ; ca, Pirineu ; eu, Pirinioak ; oc, Pirenèus ; an, Pirineus) is a mountain range straddling the border of France and Spain. It extends nearly from its union with the Cantabrian Mountains to C ...
,
Apennines
The Apennines or Apennine Mountains (; grc-gre, links=no, Ἀπέννινα ὄρη or Ἀπέννινον ὄρος; la, Appenninus or – a singular with plural meaning;''Apenninus'' (Greek or ) has the form of an adjective, which wou ...
,
Carpathians
The Carpathian Mountains or Carpathians () are a range of mountains forming an arc across Central Europe. Roughly long, it is the third-longest European mountain range after the Ural Mountains, Urals at and the Scandinavian Mountains at . The ...
and the
Tyrolean Alps, lines in Algeria and Senegal, as well as railway lines in France and Belgium.
He also attained the positions of director of the
Banque de France
The Bank of France ( French: ''Banque de France''), headquartered in Paris, is the central bank of France. Founded in 1800, it began as a private institution for managing state debts and issuing notes. It is responsible for the accounts of the F ...
, and chairman of the ''
Conseil de prud'hommes In France, the Labour Courts or employment tribunals () resolve individual disputes arising out of an employment contract. The dispute is resolved by a judgment only if conciliation cannot be achieved by the court. Judges are not professionals; they ...
de la Seine'', and of the
Paris Chamber of Commerce
The Paris Chamber of Commerce (french: Chambre de commerce et d'industrie de Paris or ''CCIP'') is a chamber of commerce of the Paris region.
It defends the interests of companies of the city of Paris, and provides services to these companies.
S ...
.
He died in 1871; his descendants were involved in the running of the Société de Construction de Batignolles.
See also
*
Hôtel Goüin __NOTOC__
The Hôtel Goüin is a ''hôtel particulier'' in Tours, France.
History
The mansion was built in the 15th century and is incorrectly considered to have been the home of Jean de Xaincoings, treasurer of the assets of Charles VI ...
*
Alexandre Goüin
Alexandre Henri Goüin (25 January 1792, in Tours – 27 May 1872) was a French banker and politician.
Life
Came from a banker family, he was member of the municipal council of Tours from 1820 on and president of the Tribunal and Chamber of Com ...
, uncle of Ernest Goüin, banker and politician
*
Eugène Goüin
Eugène Goüin (1818 – 1909 in Paris) was a French banker and politician.
Life
Son of the minister Alexandre Goüin, he was member of the municipal council of Tours from 1848 and president of the Tribunal (1856–1879) and Chamber of Commerce ...
, son of Ernest Goüin, banker and politician
*
Margaret Bridge
Margaret Bridge or Margit híd (sometimes ''Margit Bridge'') is a three-way bridge in Budapest, Hungary, connecting Buda and Pest across the Danube and linking Margaret Island to the banks. It is the second-northernmost and second-oldest publi ...
, designed by Ernest Goüin and Émile Nouguier
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gouin, Ernest
French chief executives
French civil engineers
École Polytechnique alumni
École des Ponts ParisTech alumni
1815 births
1885 deaths
Engineers from Tours, France
French industrialists
Recipients of the Order of Franz Joseph
Commandeurs of the Légion d'honneur
Recipients of the Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus
Recipients of the Order of St. Anna
French railway mechanical engineers
Regents of the Banque de France
19th-century French businesspeople
Businesspeople from Tours, France