Jean Baptiste Eugène Estienne
| Jean Baptiste Eugène Estienne | |
|---|---|
| Born | 7 November 1860 Condé en Barrois, France |
| Died | 2 April 1936 (aged 75) Paris |
| Allegiance | France |
| Service/branch | French Army |
| Years of service | 1882–1927 |
| Rank | General of Artillery |
Jean Baptiste Eugène Estienne (7 November 1860 in Condé-en-Barrois, Meuse – 2 April 1936 in Paris) was a general of artillery and a specialist in military engineering, one of the founders of modern French artillery and French military aviation, and the creator of the French tank arm. He is considered by many in France to be the Père des Chars (Father of the Tank).
Estienne was born at Condé en Barrois (now Les Hauts-de-Chée) in the Meuse valley. He was admitted to the École Polytechnique (the French Military Academy) at the age of nineteen. He graduated 131st of his year in 1882, the same year he won first prize in the national mathematics competition. He would for the rest of his life be interested in mathematical and philosophical problems, but his real passion was Greek Antiquity.
He joined the French army as a second lieutenant in 1883, serving with the artillery from 1884. Studying ballistics, he presented his first major work in 1890, Erreurs d'Observation, to the Académie des Sciences; this stimulated the introduction of modern indirect fire methods.
Promoted to Captain with the 1st Artillery Regiment in 1891, he began to develop telemetric instruments at the Bourges arsenal to put his theories into practice. He was made squadron commander with the 19th Artillery Regiment in 1902, but his real work was done as head of the workshop building precision instruments for the technical artillery section in Paris, and promoting the use of telephonic connections to enable the artillery to switch targets quickly. This work did not keep him from publishing a paper on Pascal's theorem in 1906. He became head of the artillery school at Grenoble in 1907.
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