PINAT

FRANCE (see also List of Individuals)

\

17.3.1854 Allevard/F - 17.12.1905 Paris/F

\

After having graduated from Ecole Polytechnique and Ecole des Ponts et Chaussées, Charles Pinat started as an engineer in 1878 in Albertville. In 1883, now as first class engineer, he continued his career in Lyon for four years when his father asked him for help in his establishment Société des Forges et Haut-Fourneaux d'Allevard having been founded in 1842 by Pinat's grandfather. From 1890 Pinat there took over as director. He was involved in the organization of the first hydropower conference in 1902 attended by more than 500 congressists. Pinat served as congress chairman for the 1902 Congress in Grenoble after having been involved in the design and execution of various hydropower stations, such as for the Sept-Laux scheme. Pinat was both a successful engineer and a devoted philanthropist.

\

Pinat was one of the individuals that developed the hydraulic resources of the French Alps. With his firm, he was at the forefront to add to hydraulic machinery, such as turbines, gates or outlet structures necessary for hydroelectric power production. Also, he added to the transportation of electric power. Pinat was one of the organizers of the first national congress in France, which was referred to as the "white coal". A journal La Houille Blanche was founded right after this first Congress that took place at the capital of hydropower production, namely Grenoble. The journal was used mainly by the French Hydrotechnical Society SHF but disappeared in 1940, once World War II initiated major changes in France. It was released again in 1945 and counts currently to one of the best national journals in Europe. La Houille Blanche saw its peak from 1950 to 1965 during the last chapter written in French hydroelectricity before nuclear power took over leadership in power production.

\

_{Anonymous (1906). Charles Pinat. La Houille Blanche 5(1): 1-3.}

_{Anonymous (1906). Charles Pinat. La Revue Electrique 5: 96.}

_{Anonymous (1907). Charles Pinat. Bulletin de la Société d'Encouragement pour l'Industrie}

_{106: 91-92.}

_{Anonymous (1918). Charles Pinat. Revue Générale de l'Electricité 3: 127. P}

_{Anonymous (1928). Le Laboratoire d'Hydraulique de Beauvert: Son organisation, son but.}

_{Société Hydrotechnique de France: Paris.}

_{Pinat, C. (1902). Législation des chutes d'eau: Rapport présenté à la Société d'économie politique et d'économie sociale de Lyon. Bonnaviat: Lyon.}

_{Pinat, C. (1902). La législation des chutes d'eau en Italie. La Houille Blanche 1(2). Grenoble.}