Louis Vicat (31 March 1786,

Nevers Nevers ( , ; la, Noviodunum, later ''Nevirnum'' and ''Nebirnum'') is the prefecture of the Nièvre Departments of France, department in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté Regions of France, region in central France. It was the principal city of the ...

– 10 April 1861,

Grenoble lat, Gratianopolis , commune status = Prefecture and commune , image = Panorama grenoble.png , image size = , caption = From upper left: Panorama of the city, Grenoble’s cable cars, place Saint- ...

) was a French

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the l ...

. He graduated from 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 ...

in 1804 and the

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 ...

in 1806. Vicat studied the setting of mortars and developed his own. The first building using it is the bridge at Souillac (Dordogne), erected in 1818. The material was popular but was superseded by

Portland cement Portland cement is the most common type of cement in general use around the world as a basic ingredient of concrete, mortar, stucco, and non-specialty grout. It was developed from other types of hydraulic lime in England in the early 19th c ...

. He also invented the Vicat needle that is still in use for determining the setting time of concretes and cements. His son Joseph Vicat founded

Vicat Cement Vicat SA is a French company manufacturing cement, aggregates and ready-mix concrete in four continents. Its activity has developed in France by vertical integration and abroad by acquisitions and, more recently by building Greenfield factorie ...

, which is today a large international cement manufacturing company. He was a member of the

French Academy of Sciences The French Academy of Sciences (French: ''Académie des sciences'') is a learned society, founded in 1666 by Louis XIV of France, Louis XIV at the suggestion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, to encourage and protect the spirit of French Scientific me ...

and his name is one of the 72 names inscribed on the Eiffel Tower. Vicat was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and ...

in 1855.

References

* Guy Coriono (1997) ''250 ans de l'École des Ponts et Chaussées en cent portraits''. 222 pp. Presses de l'École Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées, Paris, . * Antoine Picon (1997) ''L'art de l'Ingénieur. Constructeur, entrepreneur, inventeur''. 598 pp. Editions du Centre Pompidou, Paris, . French materials scientists 19th-century French engineers École Polytechnique alumni Corps des ponts École des Ponts ParisTech alumni 1786 births 1861 deaths Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences People from Nevers Cement Members of the French Academy of Sciences 19th-century French inventors Concrete pioneers {{France-engineer-stub