PACORET

FRANCE (see also List of Individuals)

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18.4.1854 Annecy/F - 8.1.1930 /F

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Etienne Pacoret published some thirty books in engineering, thereby concentrating on the practical aspects of hydraulic engineering. He graduated from Ecole des Arts et Métiers in Paris, and stayed in his early career in mining engineering. By 1900 he took interest in hydraulic engineering, whose development was impetuous particularly in his home region, where pioneers such as Aristide Bergès (1833-1904) had initiated electric power production in the Grenoble region. Besides literary work, Pacoret was the editor of the Revue Pratique de l'Electricité, a journal dealing with questions of hydropower. It was founded by André Blondel (1863-1938) in 1904 and preceded La Revue de l'Electricité founded in 1917, a fine French journal in electrical, mechanical and civil engineering.

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Pacoret was known for books addressed rather to the practician than the scientist. The 1903 book reviews methods of distributions in the then modern power supply that became at once important after electricity had developed to the main power source. The 1911 book introduces the main French developments in dam engineering of which the peak was reached before World War I. The 1920 book reviews the works and concepts of hydropower engineering, referred to as Houille Blanche or white coal. Private and regional hydropower production was organized in France as early as in 1902 by Société Hydrotechnique de France SHF in Grenoble. This association recently commemorated its centennial in Grenoble and confirmed the original purpose of collaboration between privates and universities to develop hydroelectricity in France. The 1923 book reviews the existing hydropower schemes after World War I. Until after World War II, the expansion was relatively small but accelerated enormously in the 1950s. From the 1960s, Electricité de France EDF developed the nuclear power industry.

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_{Pacoret, E. (1903). Distributions et canalisations: Traité général et pratique des distributions et canalisations d'électricité, d'eau, de gaz, d'air comprimé. Loubat: Paris.}

_{Pacoret, E. (1911). La technique de la houille blanche 1: Création et aménagement des chutes d'eau. Dunod et Pinat: Paris. P}

_{Pacoret, E. (1920). La technique de la houille blanche 2: Descriptions et études hydroélectriques aménagées ou projetées. Dunod et Pinat: Paris.}

_{Pacoret, E. (1923). Les forces hydrauliques et les usines hydroélectriques - Aménagement des chutes d'eau et des centrales électriques. Delagrave: Paris.}

_{Pacoret, V. (2003). Etienne Pacoret. Personal communication.}