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François Prudent Bourdon (29 July 1797 - 19 April 1865) was a French engineer and inventor, mainly interested in development of steam powered boats for inland navigation. He is known for designing one of the first steam hammers. ==Early years== François Prudent Bourdon was born at Seurre in the Côte-d'Or department of France on 29 July 1797. He was educated in the College of Mâcon. His father owned mills and river boats in Mâcon, and François joined his business after leaving school. After several year, François Bourdon and his younger brother founded a workshop. At Saint-Laurent-sur-Saône, a town opposite Mâcon, Francois and his brother Auguste ran an establishment whose main purpose was steam-powered wheat milling. In 1824 Bourdon took out a patent for a new tugboat design. In 1824 at Lyon, on the Saône between la Mulatière and the île Barbe, Bourdon made several attempts at steam-powered towing. He ran into various difficulties, mostly not technical. Bourdon's first two boats, ''Océan'' and ''Méditerranée'', were built at Saint-Laurent-sur-Saône in 1825-26. The two boats were both steam-powered, and both had two 20hp engines. They had shallow drafts, so could navigate the river most of the year if the river were dredged. Bourdon had a vision of the Saône becoming the key link in a water route from the Mediterranean via the Rhone to Lyon, then north via the Saône towards a network of canals that would connect to the Loire and the Rhine. In 1826 Bourdon created a company for steam navigation of the Saône, but it was short-lived. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「François Bourdon」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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