Jobard, Jean-Baptiste-Ambroise Marcelin

SUBJECT AREA: Mining and extraction technology

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b. 14 May 1792 Baissey, Haute-Marne, France

d. 27 October 1861 Brussels, Belgium

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French technologist, promoter of Belgian industry.

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After attending schools in Langres and Dijon, Jobard worked in Groningen and Maastricht as a cadastral officer from 1811 onwards. After the Netherlands had been constituted as a new state in 1814, he became a Dutch citizen in 1815 and settled in Brussels. In 1825, when he had learned of the invention of lithography by Alois Senefelder, he retired and established a renowned lithographic workshop in Belgium, with considerable commercial profit. After the political changes which led to the separation of Belgium from the Netherlands in 1830, he devoted his activities to the progress of science and industry in this country, in the traditional idea of enlightenment. His main aim was to promote all branches of the young economy, to which he contributed with ceaseless energy. He cultivated especially the transfer of technology in many articles he wrote on his various journeys, such as to Britain, France, Germany and Switzerland, and he continued to do so when he became the Director of the Museum of Industry in Brussels in 1841, editing its Bulletin until his death. Jobard, as a member of societies for the encouragement of arts and industry in many countries, published on almost any subject and produced many inventions. Being a restless character by nature, and having, in addition, a strong attitude towards designing and constructing, he also contributed to mining technology in 1828 when he was the first European to practise successfully the Chinese method of rope drilling near Brussels.

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Bibliography

1840, Plan d'organisation du Musée de l'industrie, présenté au Ministre de l'interieur, Brussels.

1844, Machines à vapeur, arrêtes et instructions, Brussels.

1846, Comment la Belgique peut devenir industrielle, à propos de la Société d'exportation, Brussels.

1846, Constitution d'une noblesse industrielle à l'aide des marques de fabrique

considérées comme blason de l'industrie et du commerce, dédié à la Société des inventeurs et protecteurs de l'industrie, Brussels.

1855, Discours prononcé à l'assemblée des industriels réunis pour l'adoption de la marque obligatoire, Paris.

Further Reading

H.Blémont, 1991, article in Dictionnaire de biographie française, Paris, pp. 676–7 (for a short account of his life).

A.Siret, 1888–9, article in Biographie nationale de belgique, Vol. X, Brussels, col. 494– 500 (provides an impressive description of his restless character and a selected bibliography of his many publications.

T.Tecklenburg, 1900, Handbuch der Tiefbohrkunde, 2nd edn, Vol. IV, Berlin, pp. 7–8 (contains detailed information on his method of rope drilling).

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