Louis Armand
| Louis Armand | |
|---|---|
| Born |
17 January 1905 Cruseilles, Haute-Savoie, France |
| Died | 30 August 1971 (aged 66) Villers-sur-Mer, France |
| Occupation | Engineer |
| Known for | Inventor, administrator, resistance fighter |
| Spouse(s) | Genevieve Gazel |
Louis Armand (17 January 1905 – 30 August 1971) was a French engineer who managed several public companies, and had a significant role during World War II as an officer in the Resistance. He was the first chair of Euratom and was elected to the Académie française in 1963.
Louis Armand was born in Cruseilles, Haute-Savoie, and studied in Annecy and in Lyon at the Lycée du Parc. He graduated second in his class from the École Polytechnique (class of 1924), then joined the Corps des Mines and was major from École des Mines. He married his wife, Genevieve Gazel, in 1928.
He joined the Compagnie du chemin de fer Paris à Lyon et à la Méditerranée (PLM) in 1934, transferring to the Société Nationale des Chemins de fer Français (SNCF) when the PLM was nationalised in 1938. In 1940–1941 he invented a method for preventing the calcification, furring up, of engine boilers called the Traitement Integral Armand (TIA) water treatment process for steam locomotives.
During the Second World War he organized and led the Resistance group named Résistance-Fer, from February 1943 onwards. He was arrested by the Gestapo on 25 June 1944. He was liberated from jail during the liberation of Paris, and was decorated with the Croix de la Liberation.
In 1949, Armand was named the general manager of the SNCF and created the Société du tunnel sous la Manche in 1957. During this time, he pushed for the electrification of the rail system using AC voltage.
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