Jean Rodolphe Perronet biography

Jean Rodolphe Perronet, better known as Jean Perronet (October 27, 1708 – February 27, 1794), French engineer and architect. His family integrated by his father, a member of the Swiss guard. His mother was dedicated to the care of the home, this woman instilled in her son the love of study and admiration for his father. At the age of 17, he worked as an apprentice to Jean Beausire, the first architect of the town of Paris. At his side, he learned many things that allowed him to climb to the position of assistant engineer in 1735 in Alençon, and a year later he joined the body of bridge engineers in Paris. Two years later, he became an engineer of the general public of Alençon.

In 1747, he was appointed the director of the body of royal designers and was in charge of the production of maps and plans for the kingdom. Later, he worked at the famous École des Ponts et chaussées, of which he was the founder and first director, the engineering assistant Gaspard de Prony became his right hand. During this period of his life, he met the Swiss bridge builder Charles Labelye, when he changed residence, they continued to contact by mail. Thanks to the teachings of his friend, Jean Perronet undertook the construction of several bridges in his city.

This architect was also very interested in the publication of books about buildings, architecture, and designs. In this sense, he contributed to the writing of the Encyclopedia 2, published between 1751 and 1772 under the direction of Diderot and d’Alembert. He also participated in the writing of two articles, entitled Pompe à feu and Épinglier. He stood out in the structural architecture, being very recognized by his constructions of arcs in stone. His best-known work is the Pont de la Concorde. He was also in charge of the teaching of bridge and road engineers and the supervision of their work in the general public. Perronet was a true teacher and he used innovative and modern teaching methods for those times.

While assuming the position of collaborator in the Encyclopedia, he was appointed Prime Minister Ingénieur du Roi. Then, he was a member of the Academy of Sciences in 1765. Between 1747 and 1791, he ordered the rehabilitation of 2,500 km of roads. In the Encyclopedia, he wrote the article Pompe à feu. In his honor and to recognize his work the street was named next to the headquarters of the École des Ponts et chaussées with his name, in short, a statue of him has been erected in the northeast corner of the Île de Puteaux, at the foot of the Pont De Neuilly.

Besides dedicating himself to design planning, Jean Perronet also studied the manufacturing cycle of elements such as nails, tools, among others. This is for the purpose of studying and proposing a method to reduce manufacturing time and obtain finished parts in the shortest possible time. He was a very perfectionist and curious person, a question that led him to investigate and seek better methods and results. During the construction of a bridge in Mantes in 1763, Perronet discovered that the horizontal thrust of a series of elliptical arches was passed along the abutments at the ends of the bridge.

Based on this experimentation, he finished his definitive design of the stone arch to the way it is now known. Currently, we can see that this construction contains extremely flat arches, supported by a material called formwork and adhered by means of a known technique, at that time, as formwork. Although, later, some modifications were made, such as thinning the springs, in order to widen the waterway and reduce erosion of the current.

The result was aesthetically pleasing; Perronet Pont de Neuilly has been recognized as the most elegant stone bridge of the contemporary European period. Age was not an impediment for this man, at the age of 80 he began the construction of the Pont de la Concorde, originally baptized as Pont Louis XV, in 1787. The construction of this work was not interrupted despite the outbreak of the French Revolution. He ordered to keep the work going, completing it in 1791.

Almost ten years later his memoirs were published, they record all the work done by Perronet, for approximately 80 years, and his architectural works. Such as: Bridge in Orléans (1750-1760), Bridge in Mantes 1757-1765, Bridge in Trilport (1758-1764), Bridge in Château-Thierry, 1765-1786, Pont Saint-Edne in Nogent, 1766-1769, Bridge in Neuilly-sur-Seine, 1768-1774, Pont Les Fontaines, 1770-1771, Bridge in Sainte-Maxence sur l’Oise, 1774-1785, Bridge in Biais-Bicheret, 1775, Bridge in Nemours, 1776-1791, Bridge in Brunoy, 1784-1787, Bridge in Rosoy, 1786-1787, Pont Louis XVI, 1786-1791.

Jean Perronet died in the city of Paris, on February 27, 1794, at 85 years of age. His funeral was at a mass attended by several French people who admired his work, as well as his family and close friends.