James Valoue (also spelled Valouë, Valoué or Valouè in various references) was an 18th-century

watchmaker A watchmaker is an artisan who makes and repairs watches. Since a majority of watches are now factory-made, most modern watchmakers only repair watches. However, originally they were master craftsmen who built watches, including all their par ...

. He is most remembered for his 1737 design of a horse-powered

pile driver A pile driver is a heavy-duty tool used to drive piles into soil to build piers, bridges, cofferdams, and other "pole" supported structures, and patterns of pilings as part of permanent deep foundations for buildings or other structures. Pili ...

which was used in the construction of

Westminster Bridge Westminster Bridge is a road-and-foot-traffic bridge crossing over the River Thames in London, linking Westminster on the west side and Lambeth on the east side. The bridge is painted predominantly green, the same colour as the leather seats ...

. In 1738 the

Royal Society of London The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, r ...

gave Valoue the

Copley Medal The Copley Medal is the most prestigious award of the Royal Society of the United Kingdom, conferred "for sustained, outstanding achievements in any field of science". The award alternates between the physical sciences or mathematics and the bio ...

for his invention of "an engine for driving piles to make a foundation for the bridge to be erected in Westminster, the model whereof had been shown to the society". The Science Museum of London holds a model of Valoue's pile driver constructed by

Stephen Demainbray Stephen Charles Triboudet Demainbray (1710 – 20 February 1782) was an English natural scientist and astronomer, who was Superintendent (or King's Astronomer) at the King's Observatory in Richmond, Surrey (now in London) from 1768 to 1782. E ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Valoue, James 18th-century British people English inventors Recipients of the Copley Medal Year of birth missing Year of death missing English watchmakers (people)