DELOCRE

FRANCE (see also List of Individuals)

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1.1.1828 Sedan/F - 8.7.1908 Paris/F

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After having graduated as a civil engineer from the Ecole des Ponts et Chaussées in 1849, Emile Delocre was employed in the Rhone Department. From 1852 to 1860 he then was in the Loire Department and there mainly occupied by railways projects. He then returned to the Rhone Department in Lyon until being appointed chief engineer in 1874. From 1884, Delocre was a General Inspector of the Roads and Bridges Corps and responsible for the municipal service of the capital. He took over the highest French engineering position in 1896 when being appointed vice-president of his Corps, until being retired in 1898.

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In the 1850s and 1860s, Delocre was a close collaborator of Auguste Graeff (1812-1884). During his stay in Roanne in Central France, Delocre was asked to study means of flood retention in the Upper Loire River. It was found that dams would be a useful solution to such a problem. The foundations of modern dam design were laid in the 1866 paper published in the Annales, in which three rules for the statics of these constructions were detailed. Delocre then proceeded to the design for the Furens Dam in the Gouffre d'Enfer Valley close to Saint Etienne, both for flood control and for water power. The result was a 50 m high masonry dam which looks impressive from below but retains a minor water volume from modern scales. It was the highest dam at the time and still is currently in use. Delocre was awarded for his 1866 paper the Grand Medal; he was from 1897 a Commander of Légion d'Honneur and is one of the great engineers that advanced the modern hydropower technique. He was also a Member of Académie des Sciences, Belles-Lettres et Arts of Lyon, the city he stayed for 25 years.

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_{Anonymous (1923). Barrages de grande hauteur. Annales des Ponts et Chaussées 93(1): 289- 353.}

_{Anonymous (2005). François-Xavier-Philippe-Emile Delocre. 200 ans Conseil Général des Ponts et Chaussées 2: 40. Ponts et Chaussées: Paris. P}

_{Delocre, E. (1866). Mémoire sur la forme du profil à adopter pour les grands barrages en maconnerie des réservoirs. Annales des Ponts et Chaussées 36(2): 212-272.}

_{Delocre, E. (1882). Ville de Lyon - Commission des eaux. Association typographique: Lyon.}

_{Delocre, E. (1900). Musée rétrospectif des modèles, plans et dessins de travaux publics à l'Exposition Universelle de 1900. Belin: Saint-Cloud.}

_{Hager, W.H., Gisonni, C. (2007). Auguste Graeff - Dam designer and hydraulic engineer. Journal of Hydraulic Engineering 133(3): 241-247. P}

_{Lavollée, G. (1909). M. Delocre. Annales des Ponts et Chaussées 79(6): 9-18.}