FRÉDET

FRANCE (see also List of Individuals)

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13.4.1870 Froges/F - 27.3.1955 Brignoud/F

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Henri Frédet was admitted in 1900 to Ecole Centrale des Arts et Manufactures in Paris but left one year later following the wish of his father to manage his paper mills. Frédet set up two power stations at tributaries of Isère River close to Grenoble in 1903 and 1904. From 1920 he was engaged by the Frédet-Kuhlmann electrochemical works and involved in the foundation of the Haute-Romanche County electric power company, which contributed to the design and execution of the Saint-Guillerme hydropower station put into service in 1932. In parallel, the industrialists of the Romanche Valley founded the Society of the Chambon Dam scheme, of which Frédet was the president and managing director from 1926. Its main activity was to erect the Great Chambon storage dam to control the waters of Chambon River since 1935. Frédet presided also over Société Hydrotechnique de France SHF from 1933 to 1940, to develop the French hydropower activities, thereby accounting for a close collaboration between universities and suppliers of hydropower machinery.

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Frédet was an outstanding engineer and organizer who contributed particularly to the development of the French hydropower industry in the French Alps. The Chambon scheme in the Isère Department was one of the largest of his country in the 1930s and set standards in the spillway arrangement. Once this scheme had been taken into service, floods were reduced and damages resulting from thunderstorms were lessened.

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_{Anonymous (1925). Alfred Frédet. 3 Congrès de la Houille Blanche: Frontispiece. Paris. P}

_{Anonymous (1935). Le barrage de Chambon (Isère). Travaux 19(8): 329-344.}

_{Anonymous (1963). Pierre-Jules-Marie-Henri Frédet. La Houille Blanche 18(4): 346-347. P}

_{Collange, A. (1931). Le grand barrage du Chambon (Isère). La Technique des Travaux 7(3): 168-186.}

_{Drivière, P. (1935). Le barrage der Chambon (Isère). La Technique des Travaux 11: 653-664.}

_{Gouy-Gilbert, C. (2006). Pierre-Jules-Marie-Henri Frédet. Personal communication. Musée de la Houille Blanche: Lancey.}

_{Linossier, J. (1989). La Dauphinoise: Histoire d'une entreprise au pays de la houille blanche.}

_{Presses Universitaires: Grenoble.}

_{Sylvestre, V. (1946). Contribution à l'histoire de la Houille Blanche et la part de la Savoie dans la conquête de l'énergie hydroélectrique. La Houille Blanche 1(9/10): 295-310.}

_{Various (2002). Histoires d'industries en Dauphinois. Association pour le patrimoine et l'histoire de l'industrie en Dauphiné: Grenoble.}