Paulin Talabot
François Paulin Talabot ( born August 18, 1799 in Limoges, † March 21, 1885 in Paris) was a French engineer, a railway engineer, mining entrepreneur, banker and politician.
Life
Talabot graduated from Ecole Polytechnique in 1819 and was first in the bridge and road management ( Corps des ponts et chaussées ) in the district of Brest, then worked until 1829 when construction of the Loire lateral canal, which was part of the French canal system under construction. His staff included, inter alia, Paul -Adrien Bourdaloue.
In 1829 he was appointed by Marshal Soult, the Board Chairman of Compagnie Perrochel in Nîmes, an engineer of that company, the channel Beaucaire - operation Aigues -Mortes.
Talabot pursued the development of railways in England by George Stephenson and his son Robert Stephenson with interest, especially the opening of the Liverpool - Manchester Railway in 1830. During one of his trips to England, he met father and son Stephenson, which he for many years remained on friendly terms.
In Nîmes he founded in 1830 a project development company to (then Alais ) to connect the then relatively undiscovered coal resources of Alès and La Grand-Combe/Bessèges by means of a railway to Beaucaire with the Rhône- shipping. This enabled the southern French towns, the coal until then from Saint- Étienne -related, be supplied more cheaply. He received in 1833 the concession for the project. On July 27, 1837 could Compagnie des mines de la Grand'Combe et des Chemins de fer du Gard are founded. On capital of 16 million francs, entrepreneurs from Nîmes and Marseille and the banker James de Rothschild and finally the State concerned with an insert of 6 million francs, which should be amortized through the supply of coal to the French Navy. During the construction of the railway several visits by Robert Stephenson helpful, the Talabot were with fact and indeed supported, and the locomotives delivered, while the wagons were built according to his plans in France. In 1839, the section Nîmes - Beaucaire into operation in 1840 was followed by the section Nîmes - Alès, and shortly thereafter the extension to La Grand -Combe.
1843 received Talabot and his Compagnie du chemin de fer à d'Avignon Marseille the concession for the construction of the 122 km long stretch of Avignon Tarascon and Arles to Marseille. The project comprised two large viaducts, the 486 m long railway bridge over the Rhone at Tarascon with Beaucaire and to connect the Chemins de Fer du Gard, and the 4638 m long Nerthe tunnel just before Marseille, both of which were at that time unique. Despite the turmoil, a speculative bubble in 1847 through the 1848 revolution the line in 1849, the bridge of Tarascon in 1852 was completed.
1846 Talabot had become at the request of Prosper Enfantin a member of the Société d' Études du Canal de Suez, among other things, to the Robert Stephenson and Alois Negrelli included. On behalf of this society led Talabot the re- measurement of the Isthmus of Suez by a run by Paul Adrien Bourdaloue group, in 1847 the then prevailing theory refuted that dated back to the surveying work of Jacques- Marie Le Père at Napoleon's Egyptian expedition, that it a level difference of more than 9 m between the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea admit. In a detailed study of the discussion during the next years route a channel connection he came to the conclusion that a canal from Alexandria to Cairo shortly before and would cost on to Sue's only 162-200 million francs, while a direct channel by one-third would more expensive, especially for work on the protection of the northern channel output before the mud of the Nile ( for which there was no dredgers at the time).
1852 founded Talabot the Compagnie du chemin de fer de Lyon à la Méditerranée (LM) for the construction of the Lyon -Avignon and the merger with the railway to Marseilles, with the Chemin de fer du Gard, and with the railways Montpellier- Cette ( Sète ) and Nîmes -Montpellier as well as the construction of the extension of Marseille -Toulon with the branch Rognac -Aix -en- Provence. Talabot led here advocated by him for several years a new issue of bonds of 300 Fr. At the beginning of the Crimean War in 1854 was missing on the track nor the 105- km-long section of Lyon- Valence. We have made great efforts to take the section on 16 April 1855 in operation and continues to handle in addition to the military and commercial transports.
Under his influence, the Compagnie de Houillère Bessèges the structurally difficult track Ales was founded in 1854 and from 1855 - Bessèges built, which was opened on 1 December 1857.
The Treaties of 11 April 1857, the Compagnie du chemin de fer de Paris à Lyon ( PL) and the Compagnie du chemin de fer de Lyon à la Méditerranée (LM) were dissolved and the Compagnie des Chemins de fer de Paris à Lyon et à la Méditerranée or short Compagnie Paris -Lyon - Méditerranée, or PLM summarized. Talabot was until 1882 Director-General of France's largest private railway.
In 1862, at the instigation of the PLM Talabots the concession of railways in Algeria and built in less than 10 years, a total of 506 km long distances Algiers - Oran and Philippe Ville (now Skikda ) - Constantine. In 1865 he founded the Compagnie de Mokta -el- Hadid for the development of iron ore mines in Bône ( Annaba ) having its seat in the House of PLM in Paris had. By 1883 Talabot was its Board Chairman.
Talabot was one of the first who tried steel rails in railway operations. In 1864 he ordered the construction of new port facilities in Marseille. In the same year he participated in the founding of the Société Générale. He also appeared in the foundation of rail Genoa - La Spezia and with the construction of the railway bridges over the Po at Piacenza and Pavia and Voghera between He arranged James de Rothschild, to support the web over the burner - Cinque Terre. Overall Talabot was involved in about 20 different railroad, mining, shipping and banking companies.
He was for many years a member of the Conseil général du Gard and from 1863 to 1870 a member of parliament ( Corps législatif ). Because of progressive blindness he had in 1882 finally retire from the business. He died on March 21, 1885 at the age of 86 years. A bust in the main station of Nîmes reminded of him.