Théodore Turrettini

Théodore Turrettini (* April 27, 1845 in Geneva, † October 6, 1916 in Geneva) was a Swiss electrical engineer and politician.

The Turrettinis had immigrated as Italian Protestants in the 16th century to Geneva. One of his ancestors is one of Jean- Alphonse Turrettini. His parents were the banker Alphonse Theodor Albert Turrettini (1812-1891) and Marie -Anne- Charlotte, born in Rigaud ( 1821-1876 ).

Théodore Turrettini attended the Engineering School of the University of Lausanne, did an internship in a Frankfurt workshop and came to Berlin to Siemens & Halske, which he " Prussian military " felt too. After his return, he was briefly in Paris.

1870 he was given the management of the newly-founded Société pour la construction genevoise d' instruments de physique (SIP), fabricated the drills for the Gotthard tunnel, ice machines and precision machinery. When they thus began the manufacture of incandescent lamps, Turretini went in 1880, along with Dollfuss and René Thury to America at the Edison. He married Margaret Catherine Favre, the daughter of Alphonse Favre.

After he was in 1882 elected to the City Council and Board of Directors, he served as such the construction of the first Geneva Coulouvrenière power plant on the Rhone. 1890 was added a pumped storage.

When the U.S. planned the Niagara Falls power plant, he was elected alongside Lord Kelvin and Eleuthère Mascart in the international Niagara Commission. The company Cuénod & Sautter and Faesch & Piccard have been awarded contracts. His appointment as chief engineer he struck out, but was entrusted to 1899 with advisory functions.

He participated in the Swiss National Exhibition 1883 in Zurich and at the electric lighting of the Vienna Opera in 1884. 1892 to 1895 he built the power plant Usine de Chèvres in Geneva, whose theater was lit by electricity from March 1896. He then returned to the SIP and went around 1906 for health reasons to retire.

In 1901 he was elected as a Democrat in the cantonal parliament and 1906 in the National Council. From the Board, he was eliminated in 1902 and from the City Council in 1910.

Buried he is in the Cimetière des Rois.