Édouard Beugniot


Édouard Beugniot was a French engineer, designer of the Beugniot lever, a system for articulating the driving axles of railway locomotives.

Career

Jean Gaspard Edouard Beugniot was born in Masevaux on 12 February 1822. His parents were Jean Claude Beugniot, who worked at the spinning factory of Nicolas Koechlin in the same city, and Henriette Berger-Pfeffel. At age 15, Édouard Beugniot left Masevaux to go to Mulhouse as an apprentice mechanic in the foundry of André Koechlin & Cie, whose founder André Koechlin was the first cousin of Nicolas Koechlin.
In 1844, Édouard Beugniot was 22 when he was appointed head of the locomotive department of André Koechlin & Cie. Two years later he qualified as a civil engineer. When the company became Société Alsacienne de Constructions Mécaniques, he directed the locomotive construction sector at the Mulhouse plant and worked with Alfred de Glehn. Beugniot designed a system for articulating the driving axles of railway locomotives, known as the Beugniot lever.

Family

Édouard married Maria Charlotte Clémentine Leydle. They had only one child, Marie Jeanne Claudine Henriette Beugniot born in 1859, who married Auguste Jean Hyacinthe Salin in 1878.

Death

Édouard Beuniot died on 25 October 1878. He is buried in the Cemetery rue Lefebvre in Mulhouse. His grave has a bust signed Wiedmaier with, on the pedestal, the inscription "To Edouard Beugniot, engineer, his workers and his collaborators".

Publication