Vital Innovation — Jules Petiet
Jules Alexander Petiet drove the early evolution of railway technology. Graduating from the prestigious engineering school, the Ecole Centrale, in 1832 with a degree in metallurgy, Petiet launched his career at the beginning of the construction of railways in France. He soon found work with the firm of civil engineers headed by Eugène Flachat, which played a key role in creating the first railway lines. In 1846, Petiet was recruited to help build and then lead the powerful Compagnie du Chemin de Fer du Nord, one of the five principal railway companies responsible for creating the national railway network in France. He was twice elected president of the Society of Civil Engineers, and in 1868 Petiet was selected as director of the Ecole Centrale.
At the Compagnie du Nord, Petiet oversaw a quadrupling of the fleet of steam locomotives. Many of the new locomotives were based on his designs. Petiet experimented with changes to make better use of available fuels, increase overall efficiency, and improve operations. Then, as now, the continual search for improvement is essential to maintaining the vitality of technologically-based industries. Some of Petiet’s innovative designs were less successful than others, like one shown here with four drive wheels, which looks a bit like two locomotives smashed together back-to-back. Twenty locomotives were built from this 12-wheel design. When they did not work out as hoped, possibly due to the loss of power associated with heat losses through the complex set of tubes needed to supply steam to the 4 drive cylinders, the locomotives were re-engineered to make 40 smaller, 6-wheel locomotives.
As engineer in charge of operations, Petiet became the public face of Compagnie du Chemin de Fer du Nord. Railways were a new feature of modern life, and one that was not always welcome, especially in the rural countryside. On July 8, 1846, in one of the first major railway accidents, a train on its way to Lille from Paris derailed near the town of Fampoux, sending 13 cars careening down an embankment into a bog. Fourteen people died in the accident. Almost immediately rumors began circulating of a cover up by officials of the railway company and its financial backers, the powerful Rothschild family. An investigation failed to discover the cause of the derailment, and members of the train’s crew were found blameless at trial. Popular dissatisfaction forced a second trial, this time involving officials of the railway company, and Petiet was convicted of manslaughter, sent to prison, and fined.
Jules Petiet is one of the 72 engineers and scientists named on the Eiffel Tower.
