Joseph- Michel Dutens: An Investigation

Transcription

1 Joseph- Michel Dutens: An Investigation The availability online of digital versions of old books and newspapers is changing our approach to historical investigation. The current availability of reports by specialists in the French civil service during the period that followed the Battle of Waterloo in 1815, such as Mémoires sur les Travaux publics de l Angleterre, 1 are a case in point. Experts who investigated the origins of the Chain Bridge referred to this report written by Joseph- Michel Dutens ( ), which contains the only plan of the chain bridge built by Exuperius Pickering, and suggested that it was written by a spy. The Mémoires, which is available as an e- book, introduces us to a respected engineer and leading political scientist in France who actually met with Exuperius Pickering and Edward Lloyd Rowland in Ruabon in Political relations between Britain and France following the Treaty of Vienna (1815) and the Battle of Waterloo (1815) were businesslike. There was, understandably, suspicion and antipathy on both sides following a long period of hostility; but this was countered in part by a robust curiosity regarding scientific, economic, industrial and engineering developments in the two countries. By 1818, the French diplomatic corps was well represented in Britain with official agents in key cities, including a consul in Liverpool, who arranged for Dutens to meet with high profile people involved in the development of the canals and other public works in Britain. The list of contacts in his Mémoires includes John Rennie ( ), Marc Isambard Brunel ( ) father of Isambard Brunel, Sir Edmund Antrobus (d. 1826) and Sir Joseph Banks ( ). 2 Up to this point in his career, Dutens had served as an engineer in the national corps following his graduation from the École nationale des ponts et chaussés in Founded in 1747, the École nationale is the world s oldest civil engineering school. A biography of Dutens in the Revue Generale 3, indicates his steady ascent through the ranks of the organization and his assignment to several canal construction projects despite the turmoil in France at the time. Later in life he was better known as a political economist. 4 Dutens was in his early 50 s when he visited England in He followed up on the visit with a detailed account of findings, which he submitted to his superior, Francois Bequay, (le sieur Becquay), Dirécteur General des des Ponts et Chaussées et des Mines (Director General of the Corps of Highways, Bridges and Mines). 5 The list of Dutens achievements published in the Révue Generale in 1842 indicates that Mémoirs sur les Travaux publics en Angelterre, was well received by Bequay and professional colleagues: 6 1

2 Mémoires sur les travaux publics en Angleterre is a survey of public works in England including the canal system, major highways, bridges, harbours, the distribution of potable water in London, and land drainage schemes. A supplement describes the Caledonian Canal in Scotland, which Dutens based on parliamentary reports. The report concludes with observations on L ésprit d association (the spirit of partnership) between the national government, city governments and the private sector in the provision of public works in England. 7 The sections of the report of interest to the Chain Bridge Project include descriptions of the aqueducts (pont- canal) at Chirk and Pontcysyllte (Pont Cysylty). Page 37 of the Mémoire also reports on a meeting held between Dutens and Edward Lloyd Rowland and Exuperius Pickering at Ruabon to discuss their patent to construct canals without locks or incline planes. 8 Dutens disappointment that the project had been abandoned is palpable in his Mémoires. On the other hand, he reports that Rowland and Pickering were principal members of the Ellesmere Canal Company. Dutens probably acquired a copy of Pickering s plan for the first Chain Bridge aat the same time, and included it as a Plate in the Mémoires. 2

3 The Mémoires also include two references to the Chain Bridge on the Dee. The first is a brief reference in the introduction, and the second in the chapter that addresses the construction of three types of bridges in England, including stone, wood and iron bridges. The list of iron bridges includes: the famous bridge at Coalbrookdale(Ironbridge), Wearmouth, Buildwas (Buildwash) upstream of Coalbrookdale, Bridgewater and downstream of Coalbrookdale (probably Coalport), the latter three bridges by Thomas Telford. 9 In the same section Dutens notes several failures in the construction of iron bridges prompted by une certaine tendence à l extraordinaire (a certain eccentricity) among certain English engineers, qui doit être suivie quelquefois de pareil accidents (which leads to accidents), and an espèce de manie de sortir souvent sans nécessité de la voie commune (and an obsession to veer from the commonplace without need). There follows a brief description of the Chain Bridge as an example of this eccentricity. 10 There were some readers in England who were not impressed by the Mémoires. A reviewer in the periodical The Quarterly Review referred to them as a ponderous tome and a wholesale compilation of various articles from English and Scotch (sic) Encyclopaeidas. 11 Reaction in France was more positive, as has already been mentioned. Two years after the publication of the Mémoires, Becquay delegated Claude- Louis Navier ( ) to collect information about suspension bridges in England. Navier traveled there in 1821 and 1823 and published his findings immediately afterwards. The report, Rapport a M. Becquay et Mémoire sur les Pont Suspendus 12 focuses entirely on suspension bridges, and includes a full evaluation of the Menai Suspension bridge, which was at the conceptual stage of design when Dutens traveled to England in Navier acknowledges Telford and Captain Samuel Brown R.N. ( ) as leaders in the design of suspension bridges in England at the time. A substantial part of the book is devoted to scientific argument supported by pages of mathematical formulae on the feasibility of applying suspension bridge technology in France. Navier refers briefly to the plan for the Chain Bridge that Dutens included in the Mémoires with the comment, La disposition générale et les details de la construction, dont la date n est pont indiquée, sont tres- defectueux. The plan was flawed in his professional opinion as a mathematician. 14 Dutens and Navier were members of an elite group of engineers who were assigned to gather information regarding public works and suspension bridges in England between 1818 and The assignments were not covert, but dependent on connections developed by French diplomatic representatives in England, the collection of records in the public domain, and interviews with civil engineers and others. All above board and carefully orchestrated by the corps diplomatique. 3

4 Taking a broader perspective on the situation, Dutens assignment may have paved the way for the exchange of scientific and technical information and engineering expertise between France and Britain following a prolonged period of hostility between the two countries. Indeed, the tone of the two reports is complimentary of progress in Britain in the field of civil engineering, especially the suspension bridge across the Menai Strait. Exuperius Pickering s Chain Bridge was perhaps too modest an endeavour to command the full attention of engineers with grand projects in mind, but we have a plan of the original, grâce à Mons. Dutens, ingénieur civil. ENDNOTES 1 Dutens, Jean Michel. Mémoires sur les travaux publics de l Angleterre. Paris: L imprimérie Royale, Web. February Dutens. ibid. Page xx. 3 Duverger, M.J. Dutens (J.- M.). Revue Générale: Biographique, Politique et Litérature, 4(1): Web. February Elkelund, R.B. and Herbert, R.F. Secret Origins of Modern Microeconomics: Dupiut and the Engineers. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, Print 5 Bogart, Dan. Drelichman, Mauricio. Gelderblom, Oscar. Rosenthal, Jean- Laurent. State and Private Institutions. The Cambridge Economic History of Modern Europe, Volume 1: New York: Cambridge University Press Print. 6 Révue, op.cit., p Mémoires, op. cit., p See also: Geiger, Reed. Planning of the French Canals: the Becquay Plan of Journal of Economic History Volume 44.2 (1984): Web. February XIV. Specification of Messrs. Rowland and Pickering s Patent for constructing navigable Canals without Locks. Reportry of Arts and Manufacturing, Volume 1, 1794, London: G. & P. Wilkie et al. 81. Web. February Dutens, op.cit Dutens, op. cit., Dupin on the Marine Establishment of France and England. The Quarterly Review (London), XLIII (1819): Web. February

5 The reference to Encyclopedias in this article was checked against the names of docteur Reess & M.Chapman, That Dutens mentions in the Mémoires in conjunction with the Rowland- Pickering meeting at Ruabon. Dr. Reess may be Abraham Rees ( ) a Welsh nonconformist minister and compiler of Rees Cyclopedia. M. Chapman may be William Chapman ( ) an English engineer involved in the construction of docks in Hull and in other canal and drainage projects. 12 Navier, Claude- Louis. Mémoire sur les Ponts Suspendus. Paris: L Imprimérie Royale, Web. February Dutens reported on existing canal systems, bridges and other public works referred to him by civil engineers and other contacts in England. Telford s proposal for the Runcorn Bridge in and his early experiments for Menai Bridge shortly thereafter may have been too premature to be included in the Mémoires. In 1821, Becquay sent Navier to Britain to fill the gap in French knowledge and expertise in this rapidly evolving field of bridge construction technology. 14 Navier, op. cit., 35. 5