You may have already passed in front of Square Philippe-Lebon in Chaumont or the high school of Joinville which bears his name. But who is this emblematic character of Haute-Marne, and why do so many places bear his name?
Philippe Lebon was born on May 29, 1767 in Brachay, near Joinville. He left for Paris in 1787 to study at the Ponts et Chaussées engineering school. He graduated top of his class and later became one of the professors of mechanics. Through his work, Philippe Lebon demonstrated the properties of hydrogen gas for heating and lighting. He filed his patent for the “thermolamp” in 1799. This made Paris the pioneer of this lighting method, which is described as having “revolutionized urban lighting.”
Its first installation was at the Hôtel de Seignelay in Paris, in 1801. It consisted of a large wood-fired oven whose gases, produced by distillation, were conveyed through pipes to the different rooms of the hotel for the light, and the heat released by the oven allows the hotel to be heated.
Philippe Lebon focused his research on the steam engine and ended up filing a patent for an internal combustion gas engine. But this project did not see the light of day due to the death of the engineer.
His death is described as obscure given that the body was found a few hours before Napoleon’s coronation in 1804. Surprisingly, Haut-Marnais bore a disturbing resemblance to Napoleon.
From our intern Evie Brunaux
