TAVERNIER

FRANCE (see also List of Individuals)

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10.12.1853 Lyon/F - 16.2.1932 Lyon/F

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René Tavernier graduated from Ecole Polytechnique and in 1878 from Ecole des Ponts et Chaussées. He took interest in internal navigation projects and was from 1894 responsible for the Saône River. He was appointed chief engineer in 1895 and from 1897 in charge of the hydropower utilization in the French Alps. The 1900 paper on the hydropower potential of the Alps published in the Annales des Ponts et Chaussées was awarded a Gold Medal. A report on the rehabilitation of Rhône River in relation to river navigation, agriculture and industries was also published, resulting in the Compagnie Nationale du Rhône CNR founded in the 1930s. Tavernier collaborated in this period with the eminent hydraulic engineers Henri Girardon (1844-1907) and Stanislas Barlatier de Mas (1840-1919) to set up a project for the maximum profit of all participants. In 1910 Tavernier was appointed Inspector General in the Ministry of Agriculture to direct its hydraulics department. He thus returned to a service that he had left two decades earlier, until being retired in 1914.

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Tavernier was a pioneer in agricultural hydraulics. Besides river rehabilitation, he bridged the gap between government and consumers for hydropower production of France's southeast, and was known for considerable development of the irrigation and drainage techniques in the River Rhone region. Tavernier was also related to the technical journal Annales de l'Energie which reappeared in 1921, with Tavernier as the editor. The journal presented problems relating to Tavernier's former professional career and abruptly stopped after his death.

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_{Coignet, J. (1932). René-Jean-Jacques-Hippolyte Tavernier. Annales de l'Energie 13: 103-108. Lévy-Salvador, P. (1911). L'étude des forces hydrauliques. Le Génie Civil 59(6): 110-114. Maire, A. (2006). René Tavernier. Archives Municipales: Lyon. P}

_{Tavernier, R. (1900). Forces hydrauliques des Alpes en France, en Italie et en Suisse. Annales des Ponts et Chaussées 70(2): 1-167.}

_{Tavernier, R. (1900). Les forces hydrauliques des Alpes en France, en Italie et en Suisse: Statistique, mode d'utilisation, législation. Dunod: Paris.}

_{Tavernier, R. (1905). De l'utilité et de l'organisation des transports mixtes, c'est-à-dire chemin de fer et voies navigables. 10 Congrès de Navigation Milano 1(1): 1-32.}

_{Tavernier, R. (1907). Etude des grandes forces hydrauliques de la région des Alpes Provençales. Annales des Ponts et Chaussées 77(5): 88-135.}

_{Tavernier, R. (1930). L'aménagement du Rhône. Editions Alpes françaises: Grenoble.}