Henry Darcy and His Law

Darcy's Prominence

Henry Darcy Main

• He was an accomplished engineer who built roads, railroads and water systems. The Dijon water system was providing clean, safe water to Dijon, 20 years before Paris had similar service.*
• He was a great hydraulic researcher. His publications on water supply, pipe flow and open channel flow were classics in their own time and referenced by most researchers that followed. He carried out literally hundreds of experiments, and his books are filled with table after table of results. Those results were used directly for design and teaching for at least 50 years. (A Treatise on Hydraulics, by Mansfield Merriman, John Wiley and Sons, New York, 1900, has three tables of Darcy and Bazin's results.)
• He was a diligent mentor to young engineers and craftsmen. Philip in his 1995 paper translated a letter from Darcy to Bazin. It shows Darcy giving council and encouragement to the young Bazin to pursue his interests in hydraulics. Likewise, Paul Darcy states that when Henry began the construction of the Dijon water system, they were faced with a shortage of skilled workmen. Henry Darcy took the initiative to encourage the formation of trade unions to foster the development of the personnel needed for the construction of that and future projects. Henry knew that it takes great hands to build great projects.
• He was a loyal and dedicated son of Dijon and France, and always worked for their betterment. He was personally credited with providing an improved design that ensured the railway line from Paris to Lyon passed though Dijon. Without that alignment Dijon would be a backwater today. Likewise, he remained in France during the turbulent times of revolution, republic and empire. He certainly could have worked anywhere in the world, but he stayed in France.
• Finally, everything written about him describes him as unselfish and self-sacrificing. When the Dijon water system was completed he was entitled to a payment of today's equivalent of one million dollars. He rejected it, and took instead a simple medal made in his honor.

He was truly a great engineer, scientist and citizen.

gob

*Note regarding drinking water in Paris.
On December 14, 1853 an Imperial decree authorizes the creation of Compagnie Générale des Eaux, a public limited company chaired by Count Henri Simon. The founders had two objectives: to irrigate the countryside for farming, and to supply city water in France. Today the company is part of the multinational Vivendi. After Lyons in 1853 and Nantes in 1854, on July 11, 1860 Paris becomes the third city to award Générale des Eaux responsibility for its water supply. (From http://www.vivendi.com/en/html/groupe/repere1.cfm)

dd