Guillaume Henri Dufour is remembered in technology for work that changed what came after it.
The record lists Guillaume Henri Dufour as Swiss army officer, bridge engineer and topographer (1787-1875).
Guillaume Henri Dufour was born at Constance in 1787. His recorded nationality is the Republic of Geneva. He was educated at École polytechnique.
The eighteenth century organised knowledge into academies, expeditions and collections, and turned patronage into something closer to a profession.
The record gives his occupations as cartographer, civil engineer and politician.
Among his principal works are Passerelle de Saint-Antoine and Ponte des Bergues. Technical work compounds - each layer makes the next one cheaper to attempt.
The honours are a fair index of how the work was received - Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour (1866).
Working from the Republic of Geneva shaped what was possible - the audiences within reach, the institutions that would have him, the language the work first appeared in.
Guillaume Henri Dufour died in 1875 at the age of 88. The work outlived the arguments around it.
Achievements
- Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour — 1866
- Notable work: Passerelle de Saint-Antoine
- Notable work: Ponte des Bergues
- Educated at École polytechnique
- Worked as cartographer, civil engineer and politician
