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Charles-Louis-Félix Franchot (born 16 September 1809 in Saint- Venant - 31 July 1881 in Ancerville (Meuse) ) was a French designer, inventor, mechanical engineer.
He worked as a tax officer as well as developing his inventions.
He is the son of an officer who fought in the revolutionary and then Napoleonic armies and ended his career with the rank of lieutenant colonel, was made officer of the legion of honor (1807) and received the title of baron of the Empire. His mother was Marie Dieudonne Wallart de Maranville.
But from 1840 on, it is like "mechanic" and especially as "engineer" that he is presented in the press; he is indeed the inventor of a hot air machine (presented at the Academy of Sciences which abstains, however, to report on the invention) and especially a moderator lamp which ensures him a national fame.
The Franchot's hot air machine, is according to scientists, the hot air engine that meets best the Carnot cycle. Around 10 years later than 
In 1854 he invented a
Charles-Louis-Félix Franchot (born 16 September 1809 in Saint- Venant - 31 July 1881 in Ancerville (Meuse) ) was a French designer, inventor, mechanical engineer.
He worked as a tax officer as well as developing his inventions.
He is the son of an officer who fought in the revolutionary and then Napoleonic armies and ended his career with the rank of lieutenant colonel, was made officer of the legion of honor (1807) and received the title of baron of the Empire. His mother was Marie Dieudonne Wallart de Maranville.
But from 1840 on, it is like "mechanic" and especially as "engineer" that he is presented in the press; he is indeed the inventor of a hot air machine (presented at the Academy of Sciences which abstains, however, to report on the invention) and especially a moderator lamp which ensures him a national fame.
The Franchot's hot air machine, is according to scientists, the hot air engine that meets best the Carnot cycle. Around 10 years later than Stirling engine
A Stirling engine is a heat engine that is operated by the cyclic compression and expansion of air or other gas (the ''working fluid'') between different temperatures, resulting in a net conversion of heat energy to mechanical work.
More specif ...
, Franchot re-invented the regenerator (he called it the Calefactor) without knowing the existence of Stirling's invention.
In 1836 he filed a patent for his Moderator lamp
The moderator lamp is a type of 19th century oil lamp. It displaced the more complex Carcel lamp which used a clockwork pump. Its mechanism was simpler and required less maintenance or repair. The moderator lamp was invented in 1837 by Charles- ...
. The lamp had the advantage of simplicity in its mechanism when compared to other pump operated lamps designed in the 1820s. It became a cheap and popular oil lamp. The lamp was produced by the lamp manufacturers JAC (Rue du Faubourg-St Martin 39) and Hadrot (Rue des Fossés-Montmartre
Montmartre ( , ) is a large hill in Paris's northern 18th arrondissement. It is high and gives its name to the surrounding district, part of the Right Bank. The historic district established by the City of Paris in 1995 is bordered by Rue Ca ...
).
A patent dispute later arose with the brothers Levavasseur who claimed to have created the lamp design. The patent judges ruled in 1845 that Franchot had invented nothing new in his lamp.
In 1854 he invented a hot air engine
A hot air engine (historically called an air engine or caloric engine) is any heat engine that uses the expansion and contraction of air under the influence of a temperature change to convert thermal energy into mechanical work. These engines m ...
similar to the earlier Stirling engine
A Stirling engine is a heat engine that is operated by the cyclic compression and expansion of air or other gas (the ''working fluid'') between different temperatures, resulting in a net conversion of heat energy to mechanical work.
More specif ...
but with two double acting cylinders which minimised thermal loses.
He was awarded the honour of Knight of the Legion of Honour
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, ...
in 1855.
He died unmarried at Ancerville in 1881, aged 71. Six years later, at the request of his will, his remains were re-interred on his former estate at Franchot ponds. His grave is marked by an oak tree planted at that time and is surrounded by wrought iron railings. There is an enamelled plate with his portrait and an inscription.
References
1809 births 1881 deaths 19th-century French inventors Lighting engineers {{France-engineer-stub