Philippe de Girard
Philippe Henri de Girard (February 1, 1775 – August 26, 1845
Biography
Girard was born in the village of
In May 1810 Napoleon I tried to stop English cotton fabrics from entering the continent of Europe and offered a reward of one million
In 1817 Girard returned to France with a prototype of his spinning machinery ready, but the internal situation of France after the fall of
In the British Isles
Several years afterward the situation in France improved and Girard started the first modern textile factory in Lille. Initially the business was a failure and Girard almost went bankrupt.
In 1825, through an old army connection, baron Piotr Galichet, who had settled in Poland, he was hired by the government of the Kingdom of Poland to help develop a Polish textile industry. He became consultant to the Polish government, as well as the Bank Polski. Because of the financial support of the latter, in 1831 he organized the first major factory of his project in Marymont near Warsaw. Two years later he was invited by relatives of Galichet, the Łubieński brothers with his business to their estate at Ruda Guzowska, where the factory had better prospects. Soon it became a great success and brought fame and prosperity both to the settlement and to Girard. In honour of Girard, Ruda Guzowska was renamed, Żyrardów, a toponym derived of the polonised spelling of Girard's name.
In 1844 Girard returned to France, where he planned to open more factories. However, he died the following year. Apart from the town of Żyrardów (currently one of the biggest satellite towns of Warsaw), Girard had a street and a college in 18th arrondissement of Paris named after him and two secondary schools, one in Żyrardów, the other in Avignon.
After his death in Paris, his work was recognised and his descendants were rewarded with a small pension by the French Emperor.[1]
Other projects
In 1806 he exhibited an improvement to oil lamps, and in the same year made some improvement to the steam engine, producing a rotary motion without a walking beam.[1] In 1814 he constructed a steam machine gun that was written about in several French publications between then and 1824.[6][7] The gun used six barrels that were fed by hoppers and was said to achieve a firing rate of about 180 rounds per minute. In 1818 he built a Steamship to run on the Danube.[2]
References
- ^ The American Cyclopædia.
- ^ a b c Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). . Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
- ^ "Can Maker FAQ". Retrieved 2011-10-18.
- ISBN 0-8493-3775-5.
- ISBN 979-8651909896.
- ^ https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=LNYFAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA533&lpg=PA533&dq=Girard+Vapeur+Arme+1814&source=bl&ots=6eGyD_uerQ&sig=sxyKtljN2ufACwHQrUtctsIu1t8&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiU1pTGq4XWAhXCD8AKHXNzCI0Q6AEIOTAH#v=onepage&q=Girard%20Vapeur%20Arme%201814&f=false(in French)
- ISBN 9783540304210.