BLONDEL

FRANCE (see also List of Individuals)

\

28.8.1863 Chaumont/F - 15.11.1938 Paris/F

\

André Blondel obtained his engineering education from Ecole Nationale Supérieure ENS, Ecole Polytechnique and in 1888 from Ecole des Ponts et Chaussées ENPC. Until 1910 he was attached to the Central Service of lighthouses and then was a chief engineer with the Corps of Bridges and Roads. From 1893 to 1910 he was a professor of electricity with ENPC and retired from all activities in 1919 due to health reasons. He was a Member of Société Française de Physique, of Société Française des Electriciens and the American Institute of Electrical Engineers. Also, he was awarded membership of Académie des Sciences, Paris, in 1913, and later of the Academies of Dijon and Leningrad.

\

Blondel is particularly known as an electrical engineer, where he invented instruments necessary for automatic recording of an alternative electric current. In addition, he significantly contributed to hydraulic engineering by indirect works as a general engineer. Also, he is known for a project to supply Paris with electrical energy from the Rhone River catchment, which was finally realized shortly before his death. The André Blondin power plant on Rhone River is actually the most productive in France exploited by Electricité de France EDF. In 1911, he presented a paper on tides in channels, the results of which were applied to the Red Sea. He was in close relation with Henry Bazin (1829-1917) and supported hydraulic research significantly.

\

_{Anonymous (1999). André Eugène Blondel. Le second siècle de l'Institut de France 1895-1995}

_{1: 145-146. Institut de France: Paris.}

_{Bazin, G. (2002). André Blondel. Private portrait. P}

_{Blondel, A., Harlé, E., Mähl, L. (1907). Projet de transport d'énergie électrique du Rhône à Paris avec aménagement du Haut-Rhône pour la navigation internationale. Paris.}

_{Blondel, A. (1911). Théorie des marées dans un canal avec application à la Mer Rouge. Annales de la Faculté des Sciences Toulouse Série 3, 3: 1-56.}

_{Broglie, L. de (1949). La vie et l'oeuvre de André Blondel. Mémoires de l'Académie des Sciences de l'Institut de France 67: 1-29. P; also in Savants et découvertes: 89-121, Louis de Broglie, ed. Michel: Paris.}

_{Magnien, M. (1989). André Blondel: Un savant, un fondateur de la photométrie et de l'électrotechnique. Revue Générale de l'Electricité 98: 39-49. P}

_{Poggendorff, J.C. (1904). Blondel, André. Biographisch-Literarisches Handwörterbuch}

_{4: 136-137; 5: 126-127; 6: 245-246; 7b: 423-424. Barth: Leipzig, with bibliography.}