Benoît Fourneyron Autographed Letter Signed Turbines & Cockerill Paris 1837

  

Autographed letter signed to Mr. Jérémie Risler, regarding his turbines, 1837. Autographed letter signed by Benoît Fourneyron. Dated March 20, 1837, in Paris.

Written in black ink on a double sheet of bluish vellum paper, bearing a postal stamp from March 20, 1837, and a receipt stamp from March 22, 1837, in Mulhausen. Fourneyron, inventor of the hydraulic turbine, discusses the international diffusion of his machines and his contractual relationships with several European manufacturers, particularly Cockerill. Risler, I have just returned from Belgium... The proposal you make to me to apply my turbines abroad is all the more pleasing to me as it is the best proof you could give me of the progress your company has made regarding my machines. For you must assume that I have been informed of the bad teachings it has given, particularly in Herford, Westphalia, about my wheels. The strength of my patent is less assured by the title granted to me for France than by the certainty of complete success.

I have no patent in Germany, Italy, Belgium, etc. I have just made arrangements with Mr. Cockerill, owner of the Seraing establishments near Liège, for the management of turbine constructions for various countries in his own workshops. I need to know if your company's intention is to assure me that no turbine will leave its workshops, even for abroad, without being built according to my plans and indications, for which I would be paid based on terms agreed upon between us, or if this is purely and simply an isolated affair.

Please respond with the frankness you will find in my letter and believe me in the meantime, your devoted.

Handwritten annotation by Risler at the end of the letter: Responded from? On March 25, he told him to submit his prices, tariffs, and premiums to Mulhouse. A key letter for the history of industrial mechanics and the European diffusion of the Fourneyron turbine, directly mentioning John Cockerill and the Seraing workshops, which were among the most advanced in Europe at the time.

Dimensions: 20.6 x 26.2 cm. Condition: Tab marks on the back of the letter. See photos and description for more details. Number of pages: 2 pages.

Benoît Fourneyron, born November 1, 1802, in Saint-Étienne and died July 8, 1867, in Paris, was a French inventor and industrialist renowned for the invention of the hydraulic turbine and the forced conduit.

John Cockerill was a Belgian-British industrialist who emigrated in 1797 to the territory of present-day Belgium with his father, William Cockerill. The latter played a decisive role in the mechanization of the European woolen textile industry, which was lagging behind the same industry in England.

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