- Alphonse Sagebien
Alphonse Eléonor Sagebien (1807-1892) was a French hydrological engineer born in
Amiens and the inventor of theSagebien wheel - a device that made hydraulically powered systems much more efficient in extracting energy from moving water.Sagebien graduated with a degree in engineering in 1833 at
École Centrale Paris and worked primarily inmetallurgy . He discovered many of the mineral seams still worked today in the French department ofPas-de-Calais . After 1848, he shifted to hydrological engineering, designing and patenting the wheel that bears his name. This invention is able to extract 50% more energy from flowing water than previous paddle-based systems and is still used today.Sagebien was also a municipal counsellor for Amiens from 1878 to 1888.
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