Frédéric Sauvage (20 September 1786 – 17 July 1857) was a French boat builder who carried out early tests of screw-type marine

propeller A propeller (colloquially often called a screw if on a ship or an airscrew if on an aircraft) is a device with a rotating hub and radiating blades that are set at a pitch to form a helical spiral which, when rotated, exerts linear thrust upon ...

s. Sauvage was born at

Boulogne-sur-Mer Boulogne-sur-Mer (; pcd, Boulonne-su-Mér; nl, Bonen; la, Gesoriacum or ''Bononia''), often called just Boulogne (, ), is a coastal city in Northern France. It is a sub-prefecture of the department of Pas-de-Calais. Boulogne lies on the ...

. In a public demonstration with a small boat on 15 January 1832 in

Honfleur Honfleur () is a commune in the Calvados department in northwestern France. It is located on the southern bank of the estuary of the Seine across from le Havre and very close to the exit of the Pont de Normandie. The people that inhabit Honf ...

, he was able to show that a propeller is more efficient than the then standard paddle-wheels located on the sides of the boat. In 1842, he built the steamer ''Napoléon'' in a joint venture with shipbuilder Augustin Normand. However, he was not able to interest the

French Navy The French Navy (french: Marine nationale, lit=National Navy), informally , is the maritime arm of the French Armed Forces and one of the five military service branches of France. It is among the largest and most powerful naval forces in t ...

in his idea and when he tried to develop it commercially on his own he was not successful, went bankrupt and landed in debtor’s prison for a time. Today, the practical development of propellers is generally credited to the Czech-born Josef Ressel who took out patents in 1827, although Sauvage was clearly a pioneer.

External links

Who invented the screw propeller?

, ''L'histoire de la Marine *

Scientific American ''Scientific American'', informally abbreviated ''SciAm'' or sometimes ''SA'', is an American popular science magazine. Many famous scientists, including Albert Einstein and Nikola Tesla, have contributed articles to it. In print since 1845, it i ...

Frederic Sauvage
05-Nov-1881, pp. 292 {{DEFAULTSORT:Sauvage, Frederic 1786 births 1857 deaths People from Boulogne-sur-Mer French engineers