Auguste Rateau

Auguste Camille Edmond Rateau was a French engineer and industrialist, born October 13, 1863 in Royan and died January 13, 1930 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, who advanced steam turbine and turbomachinery technology. Educated at the Ecole Polytechnique and the Ecole des Mines de Paris, he served as an Inspector of Mines from 1886 and held academic posts at several French institutions before patenting a multi-stage steam impulse turbine in 1896 that brought him wide recognition. In 1903 he founded Societe Rateau, a turbomachinery manufacturer that grew to employ about three thousand workers across branches in Europe, and he went on to design large multistage centrifugal air compressors for the experimental 1906 Armengaud-Lemale gas turbine. He pioneered turbocharging for aircraft and marine engines, and a Breguet 14 aircraft fitted with his turbocharger set a world altitude record in 1918. He was elected an honorary member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers in 1919 and was a Commander of the Legion of Honour and a member of the French Academy of Sciences.