Jean-Claude-Républicain Arnoux (

Le Cateau-Cambrésis Le Cateau-Cambrésis (, before 1977: ''Le Cateau'') is a Communes of France, commune in the Nord (French department), Nord Departments of France, department in northern France. The term Cambrésis indicates that it lies in the county of that name ...

– 1866) was a French

civil engineer A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering – the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructure while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing i ...

known for his invention of the Arnoux system for articulating trains on tight curves. As an

entrepreneur Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value in ways that generally entail beyond the minimal amount of risk (assumed by a traditional business), and potentially involving values besides simply economic ones. An entreprene ...

he founded and directed the , which constructed and operated the line from

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

Orsay Orsay () is a Communes of France, commune in the Essonne Departments of France, department in Île-de-France in northern France. It is located in the southwestern suburbs of Paris, France, from the Kilometre Zero, centre of Paris. A fortifie ...

and is now part of the

Ligne de Sceaux The Ligne de Sceaux (, ''Sceaux Line)'' was a railway line in France running from Paris, which initially linked the Place Denfert-Rochereau (then called the ''Place d'Enfer'', in Paris, to the town of Sceaux, Hauts-de-Seine, Sceaux. The line ori ...

. It opened on 6 June 1846.

Biography

Jean-Claude-Républicain Arnoux was born at

in the Nord department of France on 16 December 1792. His father was a

postmaster A postmaster is the head of an individual post office, responsible for all postal activities in a specific post office. When a postmaster is responsible for an entire mail distribution organization (usually sponsored by a national government), ...

. In 1811 he entered 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 ...

and became a

lieutenant A lieutenant ( , ; abbreviated Lt., Lt, LT, Lieut and similar) is a Junior officer, junior commissioned officer rank in the armed forces of many nations, as well as fire services, emergency medical services, Security agency, security services ...

in the Artillery under the

French First Empire The First French Empire or French Empire (; ), also known as Napoleonic France, was the empire ruled by Napoleon Bonaparte, who established French hegemony over much of continental Europe at the beginning of the 19th century. It lasted from ...

, before being decommissioned on 16 July 1815. He became an administrator for Laffitte et Caillard, a company (courier service), supervising a workshop for the construction of stagecoaches and cargo vehicles. Between 1845 and 1852 he built the rail line from

Strasbourg Strasbourg ( , ; ; ) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est Regions of France, region of Geography of France, eastern France, in the historic region of Alsace. It is the prefecture of the Bas-Rhin Departmen ...

, after doing scientific research at the

École Centrale The écoles centrales (literally ''central schools'') were schools set up in 1795 during the French Revolution to replace the college of art faculties in France's historic universities. The idea for them came from the Committee of Public Instruct ...

. In 1838 he published essays concerning his system for carriages on large curves. On 9 March 1841 he made a proposal for a railway from Paris to Meaux, although it was not enacted. CheminDeFer-SchSystemeArnoux

He is best known as the inventor of the Arnoux system (), which was used on the first

on 6 June 1846. This system used trains with articulated axles, such that the movements of the axles were guided by chains and pulleys, so that they could negotiate tight curves at high speed. He won the from the

French Academy of Sciences The French Academy of Sciences (, ) is a learned society, founded in 1666 by Louis XIV at the suggestion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, to encourage and protect the spirit of French Scientific method, scientific research. It was at the forefron ...

in 1839.: contains a description of the prize and a long study of the advantages and disadvantages of the Arnoux System By an Order of 6 September 1844 he won the operator's concession for the

for 50 years. Work started in the middle of 1845, under the direction and assistance of his two sons-in-law. Lalanne worked on the route, earthworks and infrastructure. He worked later to extend the route as far as Robinson in 1893 and managed the branches from

Bourg-la-Reine Bourg-la-Reine () is a Communes of France, commune in the southern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the Kilometre Zero, center of Paris. History In 1792, during the French Revolution, Bourg-la-Reine (meaning "Town of the Queen") w ...

and

Palaiseau Palaiseau () is a commune in the southern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the centre of Paris. Palaiseau is a sub-prefecture of the Essonne department and the seat of the Arrondissement of Palaiseau. Palaiseau was a royal doma ...

. Alexis DulongSon of the physicist

Pierre Louis Dulong Pierre Louis Dulong FRS FRSE (; ; 12 February 1785 – 19 July 1838) was a French physicist and chemist. He is remembered today largely for the law of Dulong and Petit, although he was much-lauded by his contemporaries for his studies into ...

. He is named on the face of the historic monument: ("Denfert-Rochereau Station, lately called the Sceaux or Entrance to Hell. History: Only survivor of the first age of Parisian railways. Constructed between 1845 and 1846 by the engineer Dulong"). worked on procurement, for the track and stations. Arnoux's solution was not without its problems, and twenty years later it was replaced with a more standard solution. The first line was from the ("Hell's Gate") (now Denfert-Rochereau) to

Sceaux, Hauts-de-Seine Sceaux () is a Communes of France, commune in the Hauts-de-Seine Departments of France, department in the southern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the Kilometre zero, centre of Paris. In 2019, Sceaux had a population of 20,004. Scea ...

. According to the timetables, in the year 1868 it ran to Paris every hour on the hour from 6am to 10pm and from Paris to Sceaux hourly from 6.47am to 10.47pm. The price in first class was 75 centimes, in second class 75 centimes, and in third class 45 centimes. Parisians who wanted to enjoy the countryside used it to get to Bals de Sceaux and Guinguettes de Robinson. Arnoux had previously provided diligences for the Paris - Orléans journey from 10 June 1843; he hadn't foreseen their redundancy. This operation was first used on the first French (and first continental European) line, opened on 30 June 1827 between

and

Saint-Étienne Saint-Étienne (; Franco-Provençal: ''Sant-Etiève''), also written St. Etienne, is a city and the prefecture of the Loire département, in eastern-central France, in the Massif Central, southwest of Lyon, in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes regi ...

and 1 March 1832 to Andrézieux. Arnoux died in 1866.

Legacy

a road following the old route of the first Ligne de Sceaux is named after Arnoux.

Notes

Sources

* * * * * Revue générale des Chemins de Fer, 1895

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Arnoux, Jean-Claude 1792 births 1866 deaths French railway mechanical engineers

Biography

Legacy

See also

Notes

Sources

References