Louis-Georges Mulot (14 September 1792,

Épinay-sur-Seine Épinay-sur-Seine (, literally ''Épinay on Seine'') is a commune in the northern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the center of Paris. The church of Notre-Dame-des-Missions-du-cygne d'Enghien, designed by Paul Tournon, may be found ...

- 11 April 1872,

Paris Paris () is the capital and 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), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

) was a French engineer and entrepreneur. He helped create numerous

artesian well An artesian aquifer is a confined aquifer containing groundwater under positive pressure. An artesian aquifer has trapped water, surrounded by layers of impermeable rock or clay, which apply positive pressure to the water contained within th ...

s in Paris and was the founder of the ; one of the first extensions of the

Nord-Pas de Calais Mining Basin The Nord-Pas-de-Calais Mining Basin is a mining basin in Northern France that stretches across the Nord and Pas-de-Calais departments. The region is famous for its long history of coal extraction and its testimony to a significant period in the ...

Biography

His father was a locksmith; originally from Vaubexy. After inheriting his father's tools, he proved to be very skillful with his hands; mending shotguns and clocks as well as locks. He also invented a device to improve the process of grating potatoes into

potato starch Potato starch is starch extracted from potatoes. The cells of the root tubers of the potato plant contain leucoplasts (starch grains). To extract the starch, the potatoes are crushed, and the starch grains are released from the destroyed cells. Th ...

and repaired a steamboat that had been stranded on the

Seine ) , mouth_location = Le Havre/Honfleur , mouth_coordinates = , mouth_elevation = , progression = , river_system = Seine basin , basin_size = , tributaries_left = Yonne, Loing, Eure, Risle , tributarie ...

.Magazine municipal de la ville d'Épinay-sur-Seine, April 2009, #85. Daumier-Grenelle-Mulot

In 1823, he was called to

Enghien-les-Bains Enghien-les-Bains () is a commune in the northern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the centre of Paris, in the département of Val-d'Oise. Enghien-les-Bains is famous as a spa resort and a well-to-do suburb of Paris, developed in ...

to repair the tools of workers who were digging an artesian well. He watched them at work and learned the process. Upon returning home, he created his own tools and dug his first well on the property of the Marquise de Grollier, an artist who specialized in flower painting. He then dug similar wells 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 ...

Elbeuf Elbeuf () is a commune in the Seine-Maritime department in the Normandy region in northern France. Geography A light industrial town situated by the banks of the Seine some south of Rouen at the junction of the D7, D321 and the D313 roads. The c ...

and Saint-Gratien.''Bulletin municipal de Saint-Gratien'' (Saint-Gratien en VO), December 2008, #3 In 1834, at the suggestion of

François Arago Dominique François Jean Arago ( ca, Domènec Francesc Joan Aragó), known simply as François Arago (; Catalan: ''Francesc Aragó'', ; 26 February 17862 October 1853), was a French mathematician, physicist, astronomer, freemason, supporter of t ...

, a noted scientist who was serving as the Conseil Général of the Seine, and

Louis-Étienne Héricart de Thury Louis-Étienne François Héricart-Ferrand, vicomte de Thury, (Paris, 3 June 1776 – Rome, 15 January 1854) was a French politician and man of science. He was a mining engineer who produced more than 350 scholarly articles; was a member of nume ...

, an engineer, he undertook his first well drilling project in Paris, in the courtyard of the . After seven years, drilling to 548 meters (1,798 feet), he struck water.Notice sur le puits artésien de Grenelle, from the ''

Revue des deux Mondes The ''Revue des deux Mondes'' (, ''Review of the Two Worlds'') is a monthly French-language literary, cultural and current affairs magazine that has been published in Paris since 1829. According to its website, "it is today the place for debates a ...

'' 1842
Online
@

Wikisource Wikisource is an online digital library of free-content textual sources on a wiki, operated by the Wikimedia Foundation. Wikisource is the name of the project as a whole and the name for each instance of that project (each instance usually rep ...

He went on to create more wells throughout France and Algeria. The one at Grenelle went dry only recently. While searching for drilling locations in Dourges and

Hénin-Beaumont Hénin-Beaumont (; pcd, Hinnin-Biaumont) is a commune in the Pas-de-Calais department in the Hauts-de-France region of France. Geography Hénin-Beaumont used to be a coalmining town and is now a light industrial town situated some east of Lens ...

, he discovered the first indication that coal fields existed beyond

Douai Douai (, , ,; pcd, Doï; nl, Dowaai; formerly spelled Douay or Doway in English) is a city in the Nord département in northern France. It is a sub-prefecture of the department. Located on the river Scarpe some from Lille and from Arras, D ...

. This was initially kept secret.''Le Bassin Houiller du Pas-de-Calais''. Vol. I "Histoire de la recherche, de la découverte et de l'exploitation de la houille dans ce nouveau basin", by Émile Vuillemin, Imprimerie L. Danel, Lille, 188
Online
/ref> At the end of 1848, he and other interested parties applied for a concession. Rival claims from the and the delayed the process. A decree in August of 1852 established a concession of 3,787 hectares (app. 9,358 acres) in the environs of Dourges, followed shortly by the creation of the Compagnie des mines de Dourges. Puits-grenelle-fontaine

Capitalizing on this success, he began engineering large structures, with a cement drilling and pouring technique of his won devising. He also participated in the construction of some railways. He was named Knight in the

Legion of Honor The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon ...

by King

Louis-Philippe I Louis Philippe (6 October 1773 – 26 August 1850) was King of the French from 1830 to 1848, and the penultimate monarch of France. As Louis Philippe, Duke of Chartres, he distinguished himself commanding troops during the Revolutionary War ...

and obtained a lifetime annuity of 3,000 Francs.

References

External links

* "Le puits artésien de Grenelle

* "Le puits artésien de Grenelle fête ses 150 ans

* "Les eaux de la ville lumière - Le puits de Grenelle

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mulot, Louis Georges 1792 births 1872 deaths French engineers French hydrologists French mining businesspeople People from Épinay-sur-Seine

Biography

References

Further reading

External links