François Philippe Voisin, (Voisin-Bey) (May 20, 1821 – March 17, 1918) was a French engineer. He was a graduate of the

École Polytechnique (, ; also known as Polytechnique or l'X ) is a ''grande école'' located in Palaiseau, France. It specializes in science and engineering and is a founding member of the Polytechnic Institute of Paris. The school was founded in 1794 by mat ...

, an engineer for the

Corps of Bridges, Waters and Forests The ''Corps des Ingénieurs des Ponts, des Eaux et des Forêts'' (, in English "Corps of the Engineers of Bridges, Waters and Forests") is a technical Grand Corps of the French State ( grand corps de l'État). Its members, called ''ingénieurs des ...

, and was, from 1861 to 1870, the Chief Engineer for the

Suez Canal Company Suez (, , , ) is a seaport city with a population of about 800,000 in north-eastern Egypt, located on the north coast of the Gulf of Suez on the Red Sea, near the southern terminus of the Suez Canal. It is the capital and largest city of the ...

in its construction of the

Suez Canal The Suez Canal (; , ') is an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt, Indo-Mediterranean, connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea through the Isthmus of Suez and dividing Africa and Asia (and by extension, the Sinai Peninsula from the rest ...

(number 2 in the company after director

Ferdinand de Lesseps Ferdinand Marie, Comte de Lesseps (; 19 November 1805 – 7 December 1894) was a French Orientalist diplomat and owner of Main Idea of the Suez Canal, which in 1869 joined the Mediterranean and Red Seas, substantially reducing sailing distan ...

Biography

Education

François Philippe Voisin was educated at the École Polytechnique.

Engineering career

After graduation, Voisin worked as an engineer with the French Corps of Bridges, Waters and Forests. In 1861 he left to work as Chief engineer for the Suez Canal Company. There, he was second in command for construction of the canal after Ferdinand de Lesseps. Voisin hired contractors Paul Borel and

Alexandre Lavalley Alexandre-Théodore Lavalley, (October 9, 1821 – July 20, 1892) was an engineer and French politician. Paul Borel and Lavalley were contractors of the Suez Canal Company who designed, built, and operated the dredging machines that finished exca ...

in December 1863 to engineer the dredging machines that would excavate the canal from 1864 to 1869 after the administrative ruler of Egypt,

Ismail In the biblical Book of Genesis, Ishmael (; ; ; ) is the first son of Abraham. His mother was Hagar, the handmaiden of Abraham's wife Sarah. He died at the age of 137. Traditionally, he is seen as the ancestor of the Arabs. Within Islam, Ish ...

, outlawed the use of corvee labor.

Later career

Voisin returned to France in 1870, when he became a professor at

École des Ponts et Chaussées École or Ecole 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 * Éco ...

. In 1880, affected by

Algeria Algeria, officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered to Algeria–Tunisia border, the northeast by Tunisia; to Algeria–Libya border, the east by Libya; to Alger ...

, he participated in an engineering study for a transcontinental railroad spanning from Algeria to

Niger Niger, officially the Republic of the Niger, is a landlocked country in West Africa. It is a unitary state Geography of Niger#Political geography, bordered by Libya to the Libya–Niger border, north-east, Chad to the Chad–Niger border, east ...

, which many decades later developed into the Mediterranean–Niger Railway (after an exploration and report by Adolphe Duponchel in 1879, French authorities wanted to create a new commercial railroad route connecting Algeria and Niger). In 1884, Voisin became a member of the Board of Directors for the Suez Canal Company. The authority he acquired in marine engineering issues was such that the government appointed Voisin as chairman of the French delegation to the different Navigation Congresses that met across Europe from 1886 to 1890. In 1893, he became Vice Chairman of the Suez Canal Company. He devoted his efforts to this position for 20 years. He was Inspector General of Bridges and Roads.

Death

Voisin died on March 17, 1918, in Paris. He is interred at the

Montmartre Cemetery The Cemetery of Montmartre () is a cemetery in the 18th arrondissement of Paris, France, that dates to the early 19th century. Officially known as the Cimetière du Nord, it is the third largest necropolis in Paris, after the Père Lachaise Cemet ...

with his daughter Marie-Louise Voisin, (1855-1932), his son-in-law Jean-François-Nicolas Micard, (1852-1931), Chairman of the Industrial and Agricultural Society of Pointe a Pitre since its foundation in 1907, Chairman of the Audit Committee of the Suez Canal Company in 1895, his grandson, Gaston Micard, student of the Ecole Polytechnique, and his granddaughter Mathilde Micard and her spouse Tony-Louis-Octave Smet, named honorary master of requests to the Council of State in 1903.

Family

Voisin was the son of Jacques-Philippe Voisin and Marie-Louise Douillet. Voisin married Mathilde Aronssohn on March 30, 1854, in Strasbourg. Mathilde was the daughter of Jacques-Léon Aronssohn, an associate professor at the

University of Strasbourg The University of Strasbourg (, Unistra) is a public research university located in Strasbourg, France, with over 52,000 students and 3,300 researchers. Founded in the 16th century by Johannes Sturm, it was a center of intellectual life during ...

and the doctor for King

Louis-Philippe Louis Philippe I (6 October 1773 – 26 August 1850), nicknamed the Citizen King, was King of the French from 1830 to 1848, the penultimate monarch of France, and the last French monarch to bear the title "King". He abdicated from his throne ...

and Caroline Levy. Mathilde died in the cholera epidemic that struck the Suez Canal construction zone in 1865.

Titles

In 1866, the administration of Egypt under the authority of the Ottoman Empire granted Voisin the title of Bey (Voisin-Bey).

References

Bibliography

* * , Voisin-Bey * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Voisin, François Philippe 1821 births People from Versailles 1918 deaths French engineers Suez Canal École Polytechnique alumni