Georges Rolland

Georges Rolland
Georges Rolland from Scribners Magazine, 1891
Born	Georges François Joseph Rolland (1852-01-23)23 January 1852 Paris, France
Died	25 July 1910(1910-07-25) (aged 58) Gorcy, Meurthe-et-Moselle, France
Nationality	French
Occupation	Geologist, explorer and industrialist

Georges Rolland (23 January 1852 – 25 July 1910) was a French geologist and industrialist, a member of the Corps des mines, who worked in Algeria in the 1880s. He made important discoveries about the underground hydrology of the Sahara. He was a leading advocate of a trans-Sahara railway to link French colonial possessions in West Africa. After returning to France he explored the geology of the Briey iron ore basin in Lorraine. He married the heiress of a Lorraine steelworks, and became president of the Société métallurgique de Gorcy and the Aciéries de Longwy, and director of various other enterprises.

Georges Rolland was born in Paris on 23 January 1852. His parents were Gustave Rolland (1809–71) and Bernardine Marie Léonie Dauss. His father was a former officer of the Engineers who became a Deputy. His uncle was the inventor Eugène Rolland (1812-85). At a very young age he was accepted by the École Navale and the École Polytechnique, and chose the École Polytechnique. Rolland studied at the École Polytechnique from 1871 to 1874, graduating fourth out of 93. He went on to the École des Mines de Paris, where he studied from 1874 to 1877 and graduated in second place.

Rolland became an engineer in the Corps des mines in 1877, attached to the office of Charles de Freycinet, Minister of Public Works. In 1877 he took part in the steam engines section of the Exposition Universelle.

The Trans-Saharan expedition was appointed in 1879 by Freycinet to investigate construction of a railway across the Sahara. Three possible routes starting from Oran in the west, Algiers in the center and Constantine in the east were to be examined by three expeditions. The western expedition was led by the engineer Justin Pouyanne; the central one was led by the engineer Auguste Choisy and included Georges Rolland, and the eastern one was led by Colonel Paul Flatters. The first two undertook their work without difficulty. The Flatters expedition was turned back by hostile Tuaregs before reaching Rhat. Flatters began a second expedition in November 1880. This ended in disaster, with Flatters and most of the others killed by the Tuaregs, and caused plans for a railway to be abandoned.