|
Henri Deutsch de la Meurthe (1846, Paris – 1919) was a successful French petroleum businessman (known as the "Oil King of Europe"〔Howard, Fred, ''Wilbur & Orville: A Biography'', Dover Publications. Viewable (online )〕) and an avid supporter of early aviation. He sponsored a number of prizes to encourage the development of aviation technologies, including the ''Grand Prix d'Aviation'' and the ''Deutsch de la Meurthe prize''. ==Biography== The Deutsch de la Meurthe was a French family known for its wealth and patronage in technology and philanthropy, having helped develop the industrial oils industry in France. In 1845 Alexander Deutsch founded a company for the processing and marketing of vegetable oils in La Villette, then an independent commune of Paris. With the discovery of petroleum oil in Pennsylvania in 1859, Deutsch began to study and develop the use of petroleum oils in France. In 1877 Deutsch brought his two sons, Henri and Emile, into the family business, which bought a refinery in Rouen in 1881 and another in St. Loubès in Gironde in 1883. In 1889, in association with the Rothschild brothers, oil refining began in Spain. At this time Alexander added the "de la Meurthe" to the family name. Henri recognized that the future of petroleum sales depended on the development of small internal-combustion engines, and so he promoted automobile development (he presented French President Marie François Sadi Carnot with an automobile) and also became interested in aviation.〔Crouch, Tom D. ''The Bishop's Boys'', W. W. Norton and Company. Viewable ()〕 Together with Ernest Archdeacon he founded the ''Aéro-Club de France'' to promote the new technologies. In order to do this, he used some of his wealth to create a number of monetary prizes as incentives for aviators to achieve certain aviation milestones. In 1906 Deutsch entered into a partnership with Wilbur Wright and Hart Berg to establish a company in France to supply a Wright aircraft to the French government. Deutsch financed the venture by buying the only block of shares to be sold in France, and used his influence with the French government. The effort fell through, however.〔 He supported Lazare Weiller, who bought the patents of the Wright brothers and organized demonstration flights piloted by Wilbur Wright in Le Mans which began on 8 August 1908. Deutsch de la Meurthe also invested in aircraft builders Société Astra (1909) and Nieuport (1911), and commissioned the construction of aircraft, including the Blériot XXIV "Limousine and the Voisin 'Aero-Yacht'. At the end of May 1909, Henri Deutsch de la Meurthe offered the University of Paris〔(University of Paris information (translated) )〕 a sum of 500,000 francs and an annual pension of 15,000 francs for the creation and maintenance of the ''Institute Aérotechnique'' at Saint-Cyr-l'École, which would continue the theoretical research and development of air transport aircraft. It was later integrated into the Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers. Although an enthusiastic promoter of heavier-than air flight, De la Meurthe did not make his first flight in an airplane until May 1911, when he was taken for a flight in a Blériot monoplane piloted by Alfred Leblanc.〔(Deutsch de la Meurthe takes the Air. ) [Flight Ihnterenational 15 May 1911〕 On 21 May 1911, Deutsch was injured and French Minister of War Maurice Berteaux was killed when a Train monoplane crashed at the beginning of the 1911 Paris to Madrid air race.〔[http://www.century-of-flight.net/Aviation%20history/aviation%20timeline/1911_to_1920.htm Century of Flight timeline for 1911]〕 Henri Deutsch de la Meurthe was made Commander of the Legion of Honor on November 20, 1912. 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「Henri Deutsch de la Meurthe」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|