Édouard-Alfred Martel
The Frenchman Édouard Alfred Martel ( born July 1, 1859 in Pontoise, † June 3, 1938 in Montbrison (Loire) ) is considered the first systematic, scientific cavers.
The lawyer often spent his holidays in the south of France Causses, barren karst plateaus. In the summer of 1888 he began his career as spelunkers exploring the Abîme de Bramabiau and the Grotte de Dargilan at Meyrueis which he described in detail and charted.
In Blacksmith Louis Armand from Le Rozier, he found a congenial fellow, with whom he developed many Ausrüstungsgestände and produced. Accompanied by a painter, he was able to document the recorded tracks and wrote many books on caving, which soon became best sellers.
He soon hung his unloved profession on the nail and lived only by the caving. He earned a cave in southern France and operating it as a show cave, were added his books and various verification activities. So he fell ill once very difficult to water, which he drank in a cave. When he was healthy, many weeks later, he explored the cave creek upstream and found a sinkhole that was used to cover. Then he reached to let the first record karst areas as water conservation areas in the French legislation ( Loi Martel, 1902).
In 1896, he managed to thoroughly explore the 1,300 -meter-long cave system in the cave Coves del Drac on the Balearic island of Mallorca, to map. Financier of the research was Archduke Ludwig Salvator. Martel was the huge, crystal clear, constant 20 ° C warm lake deep in the cave interior. This lake was then named after him llac Martel. It is 177 meters long, 40 meters wide and about 9 meters deep.