NADAULT

FRANCE (see also List of Individuals)

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2.2.1804 Montbard/F - 19.6.1880 Paris/F

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Benjamin Nadault de Buffon graduated from Ecole Polytechnique and Ecole des Ponts et Chaussées in 1828 as an agricultural engineer. He rose in the Corps of Bridges and Roads up to chief engineer and contributed significantly to progress in agricultural hydraulics. He tackled questions such as irrigation, cloggage and silting of soils. At the time of death, he was engaged with a large agricultural project in the Crau d'Arles delta region in Southern France, to cultivate a region that had been considered an agricultural desert up to then. Nadault was a Lecturer at Ecole des Ponts et Chaussées from 1842 and appointed professor of agricultural hydraulics in 1851. He was a Member of Société Nationale d'Agriculture from 1849. Nadault was awarded the Cross of Officer from Légion d'Honneur in 1862.

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Nadault is known for various publications, such as a large compendium on water driven factories in the early period of industrialization. Next, he was interested in dry land that was often not used for plantation. Nadault thus studied in the 1850s both the reasons for soil dryness and methods of irrigation, thereby accounting for the various soil types of France. Following visits to Italy in 1843 and 1844 Nadault presented his three volumes book Canaux in 1844, a work that made his name famous in France because he demonstrated that more efficient agricultural methods could be employed in his country.

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_{Anonymous (1881). Nadault de Buffon. Jahrbuch der Erfindungen 17: 427-428.}

_{Barraqué, B. (2002). Génie rural et droit des cours d'eau: Benjamin Nadault de Buffon. La Houille Blanche 57(4/5): 136-145.}

_{Coronio, G. (1997). Benjamin Nadault de Buffon. 250 ans de l'Ecole des Ponts en portraits: 111-113. Presses de l'Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées: Paris. P}

_{Larousse, P. (1879). Nadault. Grand dictionnaire universel du 19e siècle 2(2): 1393-1394. Nadault, B. de Buffon (1840). Traité des usines sur les cours d'eau. Carilian-Goeury: Paris. Nadault, B. de Buffon (1843). Traité théorique et pratique des irrigations. Carilian-Goeury: Paris.}

_{Nadault, B. de Buffon (1844). Des canaux d'arrosage de l'Italie septentrionale dans leurs rapports avec ceux du midi de la France. Carilian-Goeury: Paris, 2nd edition in 1861.}

_{Nadault, B. de Buffon (1853). Cours d'agriculture et d'hydraulique agricole, comprenant les principes généraux de l'économie rurale et les divers travaux d'amélioration du régime des eaux. Carilian-Goeury: Paris.}

_{Nadault, B. de Buffon (1861). Hydraulique agricole. Dunod: Paris.}