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Aimé Thomé de Gamond (November 1807 – 1876) was a visionary French engineer and entrepreneur who believed in the feasibility of constructing a Channel Tunnel under the Straits of Dover. However, despite his enthusiasm for such a venture, he died ridiculed and penniless because the project was not in conjunction with the political atmosphere of the period.
He is now called the "father of the tunnel between France and England".
Gamond's fiercest supporter was his daughter Elizabeth, who once rowed a boat into the English Channel so he could dive to the seabed to perform geological surveys on the
Aimé Thomé de Gamond
(in French)
Jean-Pierre Renau, ''Louis Joseph Aimé Thomé de Gamond: 1807-1876 : pionnier du tunnel sous la Manche''; Editions L'Harmattan, 2001, 237 p.
(in French)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gamond, Aime Thome De Channel Tunnel
Aimé Thomé de Gamond (November 1807 – 1876) was a visionary French engineer and entrepreneur who believed in the feasibility of constructing a Channel Tunnel under the Straits of Dover. However, despite his enthusiasm for such a venture, he died ridiculed and penniless because the project was not in conjunction with the political atmosphere of the period.
He is now called the "father of the tunnel between France and England".
Biography
De Gamond was born in Poitiers in 1807. He studied to become a mining engineer in the Netherlands before returning to France. In 1834 he proposed his first projects for a tunnel beneath the English Channel. Gamond spent all his wealth and 30 years of his life promoting his vision. However, at the time both England and France thought that separation made better political and economical sense. In 1856, he presented a proposal to the emperorNapoleon III
Napoleon III (Charles Louis Napoléon Bonaparte; 20 April 18089 January 1873) was the first President of France (as Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte) from 1848 to 1852 and the last monarch of France as Emperor of the French from 1852 to 1870. A nephew ...
for a mined railway tunnel from Cap Gris-Nez to East Wear Point with a port/airshaft on the Varne sandbank, at a cost of 170 million franc
The franc is any of various units of currency. One franc is typically divided into 100 centimes. The name is said to derive from the Latin inscription ''francorum rex'' (King of the Franks) used on early French coins and until the 18th centu ...
s, or less than £7 million. He would propose in total seven designs. His proposal was finally accepted in 1867 by Napoleon III and Queen Victoria
Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 216 days was longer than that of any previo ...
but the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 brought an end to the project.
Gamond's fiercest supporter was his daughter Elizabeth, who once rowed a boat into the English Channel so he could dive to the seabed to perform geological surveys on the chalk
Chalk is a soft, white, porous, sedimentary carbonate rock. It is a form of limestone composed of the mineral calcite and originally formed deep under the sea by the compression of microscopic plankton that had settled to the sea floor. Ch ...
because so little was known about the Weald–Artois Anticline
The Weald–Artois Anticline, or Wealden Anticline, is a large anticline, a geological structure running between the regions of the Weald in southern England and Artois in northern France. The fold formed during the Alpine orogeny, from the late ...
. Even after his money dried up, she taught music to finance his dream. However, a tunnel was never built. Gamond died ruined and humiliated in 1876.
References
External links
Aimé Thomé de Gamond
(in French)
Jean-Pierre Renau, ''Louis Joseph Aimé Thomé de Gamond: 1807-1876 : pionnier du tunnel sous la Manche''; Editions L'Harmattan, 2001, 237 p.
(in French)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gamond, Aime Thome De Channel Tunnel