ACHARD

SWITZERLAND (see also List of Individuals)

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29.10.1836 Genève/CH - 19.2.1931 Genève/CH

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Arthur Achard was educated in Geneva and Paris and graduated in 1858 as a mathematician in Paris. He also followed courses at Ecole Polytechnique in 1856 and made a grade at Ecole des Mines in Paris to become in 1863 a civil engineer in his hometown. From 1865 he was a Member of Geneva's Société de philosophie et des sciences naturelles. Achard was also a Member of the Geneva Cantonal Council from 1878 to 1882. Achard lectured in the 1880s in thermodynamics at the Lausanne Academy of Sciences; later he also presented courses in electrotechniques combined with applications in Western Switzerland, where a development similar to the French Isère Department initiated. From 1886 to 1897, Achard mainly lived in Paris where he contributed to metallurgic questions of the French industry.

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Achard published various papers in the technical journal of his era, such as Annales des Mines, Annales de Génie Civil and Archives des sciences physiques de Genève. He worked in water supply and urban distribution projects, such as for the cities of Saconnez in France, Naples in Italy, and Nyon, Vevey, Montreux and Morges on Lake Geneva. Further, he presented an early theory of water hammer, a phenomenon important in the design of hydraulic pipelines. He also introduced a water wheel design that has not further been considered, however. Achard was in addition involved in the Swiss lake regulations towards the end of the 19th century, to guarantee all lake neighbors certain extreme lake elevation variations. His design proposals referred to Lake of Constance and Lake Geneva in the 1870s.

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_{Achard, A. (1867). Distribution d'eau du district de Saconnez. Annales Génie Civil 6: 201-215. Achard, A. (1872). Notice sur la distribution d'eau de la ville de Nyon. Bulletin de la Société Vaudoise des Sciences Naturelles 11: 335-340.}

_{Achard, A. (1876). De la transmission et de la distribution des forces motrices à grande distance. Dunod: Paris.}

_{Achard, A. (1877). Notice sur les travaux et le service hydraulique de la Société des Eaux des Avants à Vevey. Ramboz & Schuchardt: Genève.}

_{Achard, A. (1880). Notice sur la question de l'abaissement des hautes eaux du Lac de Constance. Archives des Sciences Physiques et Naturelles Genève Série 4 4: 592-620.}

_{Anonymous (1931). Arthur Achard. Comptes Rendus Société des Arts Genève 22: 248-252. P}

_{Poggendorff, J.C. (1898). Achard, Jean Victor Arthur. Biographisch-Literarisches Handwörterbuch 3: 8; 4: 6; 7a: 10. Barth: Leipzig, with bibliography.}