Pages 224 to 226
Darcy (Henri Philibert Gaspard), born in Dijon on June 10, 1803; student engineer Ponts et Chaussées, 1823; graduated May 1, 1827; ordinary engineer on April 27, 1828, after a short stay in the department of the Jura, he was called to Dijon where his career in engineering was to achieve acclaimed honor.
The-work carried out by Darcy in Côté-d'Or are numerous and includes in particular two large bridges on the Saone; but the principal work of his life was the development and distribution of the springs which gave to the town of Dijon a water supply often quoted as a model. After having presented in 1834 the complete plan of this grand enterprise, Darcy directed its execution until 1842 with great skill and a complete disinterest.
In 1839 he was required to assume the functions of Chief Engineer of the Department of Côte-d'Or, and he received that rank on May 7, 1840.
In 1842, he was put in charge of the studies for the railroad from Paris in Lyon where it crossed the Department Côte-d'Or, and significantly contributed to the adoption of the alignment that ends at Dijon while following the valleys of Armançon and l'Ouche. After the adoption of this layout, Darcy was charged to begin work on the tunnel at Blaisy, until the concessionaire company took possession of it in July 1846.
In March 18, 1848, he was relieved from his position as a consequence of political considerations, and was named a few days latter to Chief Engineer on the Berry canal; however from June 21, he was named Engineer, Chief Director and Head of the Municipal Service of Paris.
Darcy's took the opportunity of his new situation to complete the experiments that he had begun in Dijon on the movement of water in the pipes, and in 1850 he was sent in London to collect documents on the roads of that large city.
The voluminous mission report he presented on that occasion, was published completely in the Annals of 1850, and contains the most complete information on the roads of various nature then applied to the streets of London.
Darcy had been named Divisional Inspector on April, 30 1850 and had been successively charged with 16th, 11th and 14th inspections, but the deterioration of his health did not enable him to regularly take part in the work of the Council, and he asked in 1855 to be relieved of his duties.
He died in Paris on January 3, 1858, and his premature end excited unanimous remorse in the Corps des Ponts et Chaussées, as well as in the town of Dijon, for which he had created so much.
Independently of the great report on the roadways of London, Annales des Ponts et Chaussées published in 1858 an interesting note by Darcy on modifications to the construction of the Pitot tube.
As for the great works of Darcy, they have such notoriety that it is enough to recall their titles and subject:
lo Les Fontaines publiques de Dijon. Exposition et application des principes à suivre et des formules à employer dans les questions de distribution d'eau (The Public Fountains of Dijon: Exposition and application of the principles to follow and of the formulas to use in the questions of water distribution.) (1856);
2o Recherches expérimentales relatives au mouvement de l'eau dans les tuyaux (Experimental Research Relating to Water Movement in Pipes), (1857);
3° Recherches expérimentales sur le mouvement de l'eau dans les canaux découverts, publiées par M. Bazin (Experimental Research on Water Movement in Open Channels, published by Mr. Bazin), (1868);
In the Annals of 1858, Mr. Charié-Marsaines devoted a detailed note on Darcy, from which I borrowed much, and in which he summarizes the life of this eminent engineer as: "Love of science, devotion to the public and absolute disinterest."
These traits will remind future engineers of Darcy.