Jules Carvallo (1820–1916) was a French engineer.
Biography
He was born at
Talence
Talence (, ; oc, Talança, ; ca, Talença, ) is a commune in the Gironde department, administrative region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine, France.
It is the third-largest suburb of the city of Bordeaux, and is adjacent to it on the south side. It is ...
,
Gironde
Gironde ( US usually, , ; oc, Gironda, ) is the largest department in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region of Southwestern France. Named after the Gironde estuary, a major waterway, its prefecture is Bordeaux. In 2019, it had a population of 1,62 ...
.
After having graduated with the highest honors at the
École Polytechnique
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 ...
and
École 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 was attached as engineer to the Southern Railroad; and under his direction the lines from Tech to Rivesaltes and from Tet to Perpignan were built, including the remarkable viaduct of
Bouzanne
The Bouzanne (french: la Bouzanne, ) is an long river in the Indre ''département'' of central France, and is a tributary of the Creuse. Its source is in the commune of Aigurande, northwest of the town itself, near the hamlet of ''la Bouzanne' ...
. Afterward Carvallo became director of the work of canalizing the
Ebro
, name_etymology =
, image = Zaragoza shel.JPG
, image_size =
, image_caption = The Ebro River in Zaragoza
, map = SpainEbroBasin.png
, map_size =
, map_caption = The Ebro ...
(Spain); and he established in the delta of that river a system of irrigation which permitted the cultivation of enormous tracts of land hitherto unproductive. From Spain Carvallo went to Italy, where he directed the works of the Roman railroads. On his return to Spain he was entrusted with the building of the line from
Pamplona
Pamplona (; eu, Iruña or ), historically also known as Pampeluna in English, is the capital city of the Chartered Community of Navarre, in Spain. It is also the third-largest city in the greater Basque cultural region.
Lying at near above ...
to
Zaragoza
Zaragoza, also known in English as Saragossa,''Encyclopædia Britannica'"Zaragoza (conventional Saragossa)" is the capital city of the Zaragoza Province and of the autonomous community of Aragon, Spain. It lies by the Ebro river and its tributari ...
, and later became the chief engineer of a Spanish water company.
Carvallo was the author of many dissertations printed in the ''Comptes-Rendus do l'Académic des Sciences'' and in many other scientific publications. Among his numerous contributions the most noteworthy were those on the piling up and solidification of embankments; on the formula of the maximum of stability and minimum of expense in public works; on the laws of oscillation of chain bridges, etc.
Amid his numerous works, Carvallo found time to devote himself to Jewish interests. He was one of the founders of the
Alliance Israélite Universelle
The Alliance Israélite Universelle (AIU; he, כל ישראל חברים; ) is a Paris-based international Jewish organization founded in 1860 with the purpose of safeguarding human rights for Jews around the world. It promotes the ideals of Jew ...
, and for many years served on the executive committee of that institution. He was a
Saint-Simonian. According to M. Chouraqui, he was considered too open to Christianity, in that he considered the possibility that Jesus had a mission from providence.
[Elie Kedourie, ''Arabic Political Memoirs and Other Studies''. London: Frank Cass, 1974, p. 74. ]
References
External links
*
École Polytechnique alumni
École des Ponts ParisTech alumni
Corps des ponts
1820 births
1916 deaths
People from Talence
19th-century French Sephardi Jews
French civil engineers
Saint-Simonists
Spanish engineers
Jewish socialists
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