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Building Beyond The Mediterranean

 | 
Claudine Piaton
, 
Ezio Godoli
, 
David Peyceré

Business networks abroad

Beyond the Haine: The growth of the Belgian company Baume & Marpent

Au-delà de la Haine… Itinéraire de l’entreprise wallonne Baume & Marpent

Karima Haoudy

Texte intégral

“The modest foundry of Baume which, in 1870, employed just 60 workers and staff, whose facilities barely covered 2 hectares around 1875, became this powerful corporation, with buildings and courtyards spreading over more than 60 hectares, where over 4,000 engineers, technicians, administrators, and workers labored daily.”
(Écomusée de Bois-du-Luc, fonds Baume & Marpent, company catalogue, c. 1953).

Figure 1: Léon Moyaux, General manager of Baume & Marpent between 1871 and 1902 [undated portrait]

Figure 1: Léon Moyaux, General manager of Baume & Marpent between 1871 and 1902 [undated portrait]

Source: Baume & Marpent collection, Écomusée du Bois-du-Luc, La Louvière, Belgium

  • 1 In addition to the Baume & Marpent archives conserved at the Écomusée of Bois-du-Luc, see Alain Dew (...)
  • 2 Until 1947, the successive directors were descendants of the Delbèque-Moyaux dynasty. Ginette Kurga (...)
  • 3 The foundry changed its name several times. It was successively called: in 1870, the Société Delbèq (...)
  • 4 See infra, the article by Karima Haoudy, “The Casablanca Summer Theatre by Baume & Marpent”.
  • 5 Register of minutes of the Board of Directors meetings from 1 March 1930 to 20 October 1938, meetin (...)

1At the origin of Baume & Marpent, the steel construction giant whose influence extended worldwide, was a doctor, Clément Delbèque (1810-1893). Born in Morlanwelz (in the province of Hainaut, Wallonia), he started out in the industrial sector by opening a modest foundry in 1853 at Baume, where he owned land ideally situated along the “Mons-Manage and extension” railway line.1 Initially oriented towards the manufacture of hardware items for building, the Baume, Delbèque et Cie foundries specialised in the production of axle boxes, buffers, and other cast iron parts for the equipment of railways, an industry that was booming in the second half of the 19th century. The small local foundry’s growth to a firm with multinational reach was driven by the founder’s nephew, Léon Moyaux (1846-1912).2 He pioneered the growth of both production and sales, diversifying the manufacturing program at home and conquering new markets beyond Belgium’s borders. After training to be a mining and civil engineer at the University of Liege, Léon Moyaux became the general manager of the company Delbèque et Cie, which became the company Baume & Marpent in 1913.3 Moyaux was a model 19th century “captain of industry.” The charities to which he donated were essentially educational for industrial purposes (he contributed funds to the École Industrielle of Morlanwelz and to the Athénée du Centre). He was also on the lookout for technological innovations. Like the majority of industry captains in the Hainaut, he also took on political responsibilities, including that of liberal alderman of public instruction in Morlanwelz, and he built relationships with emblematic personalities of the business world, including the Warocqué dynasty and Ferdinand de Lesseps. The company’s name shows the search for new outlets. The construction, from 1882 of a factory at Marpent (an outskirt of Jeumont, in the Nord department in France) with the aim of avoiding protectionist measures adopted by the French minister Jules Méline under the 3rd Republic, encouraged Léon Moyaux to expand and conquer new markets. Baume & Marpent set up factories – called “régies” then “divisions” – beyond the Haine, from the name of the river that flows through the Centre region of Belgium, in Italy (provisional division), Egypt, and, after World War II, in the Belgian Congo (Baumaco) and Brazil (a partnership with the SA União dos Construtores Metálicos de São Paulo). New divisions were created for a variety of reasons: to specialize production, to ensure links with clients on location, to make the most of new markets which were expanding at the time, such as Egypt, to reduce transport costs, to skirt legislation that was too protectionist, etc. Some of these divisions, such as that set up in Egypt, were equipped with workshops which ensured varying levels of independence, depending on their commercial strategic position. They were managed by a steward who was supervised by the general manager of the head office, located at Haine-Saint-Pierre (La Louvière, Hainaut province). They had to report regularly to the Baume & Marpent board of directors on production, the state of their equipment, the regular conquest of new markets, and how they were managing their facilities. The company also made use of agents who acted as an interface between the company and its clients, whether public or private. The names of these intermediaries were lettered in on certain technical drawings at the time of drafting. Annotations outside the title block mention the agents. Sometimes, a passage in the minutes of a meeting of the board of directors records reception of an order, the genesis of a new project. For example, the design of a summer theatre at Casablanca4 is not unrelated to engineer Bossut’s journey through the Maghreb, to drum up business.5

  • 6 Register of minutes of the Board of Directors meetings from 21 February 1902 to 27 May 1913, meetin (...)

2From an analysis of the minutes of the board of directors, it is also possible to see the management’s ongoing concern about its agents’ efficiency. Léon Moyaux emphasized this on several occasions: “We keep our agents abroad in suspense. Unfortunately, the number of active, skillful agents remains small. We should organize a relatively stable schedule of staff duties.”6

  • 7 See Michel Thiry, “Raccourcir le temps et l’espace: la conquête du rail par Baume & Marpent,” in Ba (...)
  • 8 Musée royal de Mariemont, Archives Fonds Faider concernant Baume & Marpent, Historique de l’entrepr (...)

3Although railway construction contributed to establishing the company’s fame, starting in 1871, as it was gaining territory outside Europe, Baume & Marpent extended its manufacturing program to the design, production, and assembly of civil engineering structures. The company also explored all the fundamentally innovative resources of steel architecture (pre-fabrication principles, adoption of new materials, architecture that could be taken apart, a syncretic vision of engineering and architecture, etc.). Production facilities were located right next to the head office in Haine-Saint-Pierre, Belgium. All types of bridge systems (fixed and mobile, riveted or soldered bridges) were built there, structures (frames for civil and industrial buildings), gazometers, tanks (water, gasoline, and acid), heavy engineering equipment, steel casts produced in the Bessemer converter, and railway equipment. In 1896, 5 km from this nerve center, Baume & Marpent opened the Morlanwelz factory (in the former Brison workshops established in 1844). It specialized in the construction of rolling stock from 1896. The works produced diesel and electric locomotives, diesel, electric, and mechanical trains and coaches of all types, fixed track equipment, a variety of freight cars, cars for tramways, buses and trolleybuses, etc.7 In France, the Marpent division condensed the two manufacturing programs of its Belgian neighbors. In 1914, a new Siemens-Martin steelworks was opened at Marpent to supply axles, tires, and all sorts of cast steel parts necessary for the construction of rolling stock.8

Locating in Egypt

  • 9 Baume & Marpent restored the platform of the Eiffel Tower for the International Exposition dedicate (...)

4“Baume & Marpent was involved in the majority of the major technical constructions of recent centuries, from the Eiffel Tower to the Suez Canal. [...] The largest swing bridge in the world, to open in the near future at El Ferdan on the Suez Canal, emerged from its Belgian factories, and will be built by its Egyptian division.”9

5In 1893, even before it had expanded locally to Morlanwelz, Baume & Marpent set up an assembly workshop in Egypt. At the beginning, the company’s sales representatives were Lambert & Ralli. However, Baume & Marpent terminated this contract at the beginning of the 1900s to hire the Camel Toueg office instead, which at the time represented the interests of numerous Belgian industrialists in Egypt.

  • 10 Lionel Wiener, op. cit., p. 176.
  • 11 See infra Isabelle Sirjacobs, “On either shore: Baume & Marpent’s Egyptian bridges.”

6Nearly immediately after Baume & Marpent set up shop in Egypt, the Compagnie Universelle du Canal Maritime de Suez commissioned it to supply water tanks for the Raswa waterworks at Port-Said. Participating in the modernization of infrastructure initiated by the Egyptian Department of Bridges,10 Baume & Marpent received its first important order in 1894. Although the majority of Belgian companies entered the Egyptian market by building railways, Baume & Marpent proved its skills by building the bridges at Sahel Boulaq, Demerdash, Farkha, and Diffrah, from 1892 on.11 As a supplier of steel structures, especially bridges, Baume & Marpent tended to stand out in the Egyptian industrial landscape.

Figure 2: 300-cubic-meter steel water tower erected for the Suez Canal Company, Port Said (1914): Plan, section, and elevation

Figure 2: 300-cubic-meter steel water tower erected for the Suez Canal Company, Port Said (1914): Plan, section, and elevation

Source: Baume & Marpent collection, Écomusée du Bois-du-Luc, La Louvière, Belgium

Figure 3: Locomotive repair shop, Boulaq, Cairo, Baume & Marpent cont.: Interior view

Figure 3: Locomotive repair shop, Boulaq, Cairo, Baume & Marpent cont.: Interior view

Source: Baume & Marpent collection, Écomusée du Bois-du-Luc, La Louvière, Belgium

  • 12 Register of minutes of the Board of Directors meetings from 21 February 1902 to 27 May 1913, meetin (...)

7“Mr. Moyaux explains to the Council that in a situation where a major contract for the construction of the Imbaba Bridge is awarded, given the plans to reinforce several bridges in Egypt, it could be advantageous to create a workshop, in Cairo itself, for the erection of the bridges and structures. Mr. Rifflart, present at this stage of the meeting, confirmed Mr. Moyaux’s observations; according to him, the profit yielded by the use of indigenous labor would allow significant savings to be made on the costs we would incur in constructing the bridges in our Belgian workshops. Materials procurement, made difficult in Belgium due to reception by British agents, could be done in England, with direct shipping to Egypt; finally, having a workshop in situ would put us in a more favorable position compared with our competitors.”12

Figure 4: Baume & Marpent brochure: Imbaba Bridge construction, photographed phase by phase

Figure 4: Baume & Marpent brochure: Imbaba Bridge construction, photographed phase by phase

Source: Baume & Marpent collection, Écomusée du Bois-du-Luc, La Louvière, Belgium

Figure 5: Imbaba Bridge, Cairo (1912-1924), Baume & Marpent, cont.: The swing span, near completion

Figure 5: Imbaba Bridge, Cairo (1912-1924), Baume & Marpent, cont.: The swing span, near completion

Source: Baume & Marpent collection, Écomusée du Bois-du-Luc, La Louvière, Belgium

Figure 6: Egyptian State Railways (1927), Baume & Marpent, cont.: First-class coach monogram design

Figure 6: Egyptian State Railways (1927), Baume & Marpent, cont.: First-class coach monogram design

Source: Baume & Marpent collection, Écomusée du Bois-du-Luc, La Louvière, Belgium

  • 13 Register of minutes of the Board of Directors meetings from 1 May 1930 to 20 October 1939, meeting (...)

8The construction of the Imbaba Bridge (1912-1924) in Cairo, to which Léon Moyaux was referring, was a turning point for Baume & Marpent, both in Egypt and around the rest of the world. A feat of engineering, the Imbaba Bridge was at the heart of the marketing strategy and tools used by the directors of Baume & Marpent, from Léon Moyaux, who attended the cornerstone-laying ceremony, to Jean Carton de Wiart, the company’s last managing director. In its relations with Egyptian clients, Baume & Marpent systematically highlighted this important construction. The iconographic variations of the Imbaba Bridge are numerous and the supports varied (drawings, photographs, postcards, office decoration, etc.). Besides appearing in all of the company’s sales catalogues, a reduced model of the bridge also greeted potential clients in the main lobby of the headquarters at Haine-Saint-Pierre. In Cairo, another reduced model of this bridge entered the collections of the new Railway Museum, opened in 1933 during the International Railway Congress.13

  • 14 See infra, I. Sirjacobs, op. cit.
  • 15 Louis Dupont, “Le Nouveau Pont à deux voies sur le Nil aux abords de la station d’Imbaba,” Revue de (...)
  • 16 Division d’Égypte. Note de Jean Lemaigre, 1953 (Fréderic Vande Vijver Gift, Baume & Marpent collect (...)
  • 17 Division d’Égypte. Schéma organique de la Division d’Égypte, 1 January 1954 (Fréderic Vande Vijver (...)

9In 1912, after winning the Imbaba Bridge contract, Baume & Marpent decided to set up a large outpost in Egypt, equivalent to a “division.”14 This initiative was a continuation of the efforts begun as early as 1893 to set up the Cairo workshop. Managing Director Léon Moyaux, eager to extend the company’s markets beyond Belgian borders, planned to send both administrators and workers to Egypt. The latter would be backed up by the presence of local manpower, assigned to varied tasks depending on specialization, as the distribution of work on the construction of the Imbaba Bridge15 shows. In 1953, when the company was experiencing the major difficulties in Europe that would lead to its closure, Jean Lemaigre, Chairman of the Board of Directors, noted16 that the Egyptian division required one director, 20 employees, and 350 laborers. During rush periods, the Egyptian subsidiary could mobilize close to 600 laborers. The organization chart tells us that it was managed by a principal engineer from Baume & Marpent, who shared his responsibilities with the “business development” unit, a task entrusted to Camel Toueg & Co. for several years. In addition to administrative services (secretarial and accounting), the management supervised a team of foremen, worksite supervisors; a depot, managed by Baume & Marpent and the Camel Toueg office; and finally a technical service consisting of three engineers chosen by Baume & Marpent.17

10The Egyptian division had a much broader field of action and greater independence compared to other divisions. In fact, it was responsible for all foundations using pneumatic caissons, the construction of abutments and piers, the erection of structures in reinforced concrete in partnership with other companies such as Rolin & Cie, and for the assembly of steel structures as well as railway equipment.

The mechanism of exchanges: Baume & Marpent and engineers

  • 18 In 1937, the situation changed with the political context, as we will see later. The Anglo-Egyptian (...)
  • 19 Register of minutes of the Board of Directors meetings from 21 February 1902 to 27 May 1913, meetin (...)
  • 20 Register of minutes of the Board of Directors meetings from 6 June 1913 to 30 June 1923, meeting of (...)
  • 21 Ibid., meeting of 3 March 1914 (Baume & Marpent collection).

11Until the eve of World War II, the engineers sent by Baume & Marpent were from the inside.18 The Hainaut-based management assigned its most trusted engineers to the running of its business in Egypt. Thus, Charles Rifflart, one of the pioneers of Egyptian operations who had significantly contributed to influencing Moyaux’s decision, had previously proven himself in the French division of Marpent.19 His deputy assistant, the engineer Edmond Bossut who, with Charles Kerihuel, replaced Rifflart after his death, had a strong background in the search for new clients located essentially in the southeastern Mediterranean (Greece, Turkey, etc.).20 The administrators Henri Fauquel and Louis Dupont regularly asked Bossut to travel outside Egypt, his assigned area, to develop business. As for Charles Kerihuel, he was promoted to chief engineer of the Egyptian division following the works he successfully supervised for the building of a bridge in the province of Sichuan (China).21

  • 22 Correspondence from 13 December 1929 to 22 May 1942, letter of 13 December 1929 (Baume & Marpent co (...)

12Baume & Marpent’s Egyptian career officers, who had trained as engineers at the top Belgian and French schools (Liege University, Faculté Polytechnique de Mons, Faculté Polytechnique de l’École Royale Militaire de Bruxelles, École Centrale des Arts & Manufactures de Paris, etc.), also had a strong background in terms of business development. They were used to dealing with non-European authorities whose communications customs and codes they tried to master, for better or worse. In 1929, when Kerihuel left, the company hired engineer Henri Fontaine to replace him. Before reaching Cairo, Fontaine underwent from three to six months of training (depending on the source) in the workshops at Haine-Saint-Pierre (in the Bridges and Structures section).22 The idea was to have him work on orders for structures to be sent to Egypt, to accustom him to his future position.

Figure 7: Hangar for Almaza Airport, Cairo (1933): Plans, sections, and elevations

Figure 7: Hangar for Almaza Airport, Cairo (1933): Plans, sections, and elevations

Source: Baume & Marpent collection, Écomusée du Bois-du-Luc, La Louvière, Belgium

  • 23 Register of minutes of the Board of Directors meetings from 1 May 1930 to 20 October 1939, meeting (...)
  • 24 Register of minutes of the Board of Directors meetings from 1 May 1930 to 20 October 1939, meeting (...)
  • 25 Correspondence from 13 December 1929 to 22 May 1942, letter of 10 March 1936 (Baume & Marpent colle (...)

13In March 1937, the Board of Directors’ minutes show that given the political context, Baume & Marpent was obliged to add an engineer of Egyptian nationality to its staff.23 A few months later, the engineer Ahmed Samy Auf joined the division.24 In 1936, Baume & Marpent had already hired an Egyptian engineer, Pierre Bocti, for strategic reasons, among others. As Henri Fauquel noted in the letter he sent to his chairman: “Being already settled in Cairo and being of Egyptian nationality, perhaps he could help us in our relations with the Egyptians, if we engaged him. On the other hand, however, is it unreasonable to fear that after Mr. Bossut has taught him his profession as site manager, he will leave us and compete against us, either by conferring with local firms, or by making himself available to one of our Belgian competitors?”25

Figure 8: Suez Canal Company warehouses, Port Tewfik, Suez (1930), Paul Albert, arch.; Baume & Marpent, cont.: Construction on the steel framework

Figure 8: Suez Canal Company warehouses, Port Tewfik, Suez (1930), Paul Albert, arch.; Baume & Marpent, cont.: Construction on the steel framework

Source: Baume & Marpent collection, Écomusée du Bois-du-Luc, La Louvière, Belgium

  • 26 Report by Jean Carton de Wiart during his stay in Cairo from 15 to 19 May 1953 (Fréderic Vande Vijv (...)

14There is some question as to how the company carried out this “Egyptianization” of its staff, because we later discover, in an examination of the Egyptian division, that the “Egyptian” staff did not speak Arabic fluently. The tendency to follow political fluctuations of the Egyptian regime was constant. It continued right up to 1953, when closure was imminent. Baume & Marpent considered replacing Bocti with a Muslim engineer, hoping by this tactic to please the Egyptian authorities.26

  • 27 Register of minutes of the Board of Directors meetings from 6 June 1913 to 30 June 1923, meetings o (...)
  • 28 Register of minutes of the Board of Directors meetings from 1 March 1930 to 20 October 1939, meetin (...)
  • 29 Ibid., meeting of 3 December 1931 (Baume & Marpent collection).

15The exchanges between Baume & Marpent and the Egyptian administration are recorded in the archives and relate particularly to the supervision by Egyptian civil servants of structures built by the company. Occasionally, Baume & Marpent strengthened these ties, for example by training Egyptian engineers, as it had done in Chile and other countries with promising markets. In September 1920, Kerihuel went to New York with Raimondi, the head engineer of the Egyptian railways. The point of the trip was commercial; Kerihuel hoped it would convince the Egyptian administration to adopt the Strauss system, perfected by Baume & Marpent, for constructions on the Suez Canal.27 Except for this research mission and the occasional support given by Baume & Marpent in 1933 to the setting up of the International Railway Congress and the Cairo Railway Museum,28 we have not found any trace in the archives of any long-term support for continuing the education or training of engineers in Egypt. The company regularly undertook such initiatives in both Belgium and France, providing funds and materials to promote technical teaching in regional vocational schools, to support engineers’ associations, and to train in specialized schools abroad, especially at the École Supérieure de Fonderie in Paris, etc.29

  • 30 Jean-Édouard Goby, “Farid Boulad Bey (1872-1947),” Bulletin de l’Institut d’Égypte, vol. 29-30, 194 (...)
  • 31 Farid Boulad Bey, “Sur le calcul des poutres principales des ponts tournants sur couronne de galets (...)

16At the turn of the century, the Baume & Marpent engineers located in Egypt had an opportunity to work alongside the famous engineer and mathematician, Farid Youssef Boulad Bey (1872-1947),30 who was internationally known for his studies on the theory of elasticity, the resistance of materials and, above all, for his discoveries in the field of graphic calculations. There is no need to mention that his research was valuable for steel construction, especially for the design of bridges. After having studied at the Paris École Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées (1893-1898), where he attended the classes of the most illustrious engineers of the time (Clément Colson, André Blondel, Auguste Choisy, etc.), Farid Boulad, back in Egypt, was appointed head of the technical office at the department of New Bridges and Works. During this period, he handled both the completion of a series of civil engineering projects, which he himself wholly designed, and the supervision of constructions built by foreign companies. Among these, the swing bridges at Imbaba (1924), Mansoura (1913), Asyut (1913), Abu Zabal (1911), and Benha (1904), developed and mounted by Baume & Marpent. These bridges should be mentioned because their construction works were the subject of a thorough study, led by Farid Boulad, who was especially interested in improving the calculation methods for this type of bridge, common in the Egyptian landscape.31

Figure 9: Kosheshah Bridge over the Nile north of Beni Suef (1909): Overall view

Figure 9: Kosheshah Bridge over the Nile north of Beni Suef (1909): Overall view

Source: Baume & Marpent collection, Écomusée du Bois-du-Luc, La Louvière, Belgium

Figure 10: Strauss-type bascule bridge on Albert Canal, Belgium (1954), Baume & Marpent cont.: The swing span

Figure 10: Strauss-type bascule bridge on Albert Canal, Belgium (1954), Baume & Marpent cont.: The swing span

Source: Baume & Marpent collection, Écomusée du Bois-du-Luc, La Louvière, Belgium

  • 32 Farid Boulad Bey, “Compte rendu de ma mission aux deux congrès internationaux du béton et béton arm (...)

17At the International Congress for Steel Construction held in Liege in September 1930, during the International exhibition of heavy industries, sciences and appliances, Farid Boulad presided over the section devoted to his preferred area: mobile bridges and locks. There, he presented his research on the calculation of the principal girder of the deck of swing bridges on crown rollers, and its practical application on worksites he had supervised with Baume & Marpent and other European firms.32

Figure 11: The design office drafting room at Baume & Marpent in Belgium

Figure 11: The design office drafting room at Baume & Marpent in Belgium

Source: Baume & Marpent collection, Écomusée du Bois-du-Luc, La Louvière, Belgium

18Farid Boulad Bey made the transition between Egypt and Belgium, but also between steel and reinforced concrete, since the Congress for Steel Construction was coupled with the International Congress for Concrete and Reinforced Concrete, a material the Egyptian engineer took an interest in and admired, conscious of its prospects in civil engineering. Farid Boulad’s exceptional career does not reflect all the exchanges Baume & Marpent maintained with Egyptian engineers. Thorough research in the archives of the Belgian and French polytechnic faculties, complemented by a study of the resources kept at the Écomusée, would allow the mechanics and complexities of these relationships to be better understood. Finally, in addition to reconstructing the history and rapid geographic expansion of Baume & Marpent, the Écomusée archives highlight Belgium’s importance during the industrial era. The Railway Museum located at the heart of Ramesses station in Cairo recalls Baume & Marpent’s contribution and, more generally, the decisive role played by Belgian skills and knowledge (especially those of ACEC, Cockerill, the Brugeoise Nicaise & Delcuve, etc.) in the Egyptian industrial landscape.

Notes

1 In addition to the Baume & Marpent archives conserved at the Écomusée of Bois-du-Luc, see Alain Dewier, Karima Haoudy, Jean Puissant et al., Baume & Marpent. De la Haine au Nil… Itinéraire d’un géant, La Louvière: Écomusée du Bois-du-Luc, 2008, p. 21-37; Mémoires d’une région: Le Centre, 1830-1914, [exhibition catalogue] Morlanwelz: Musée Royal de Mariemont, 1985, p. 20-26, 28; Raymond Dehaen, Georges Place, “Baume et Marpent,” in Nos industries au passé, Haine-Saint-Pierre: Publications du cercle d’histoire et de folklore Henri Guillemin, 1981, p. 73-97; Lionel Wiener, L’Égypte et ses chemins de fer, Brussels: Weissenbruch, 1932; Éric Warte, “Les archives de Baume & Marpent,” Patrimoine industriel Wallonie- Bruxelles, n° 25, Feb. 1993, p. 14-17.

2 Until 1947, the successive directors were descendants of the Delbèque-Moyaux dynasty. Ginette Kurgan-Van Henterijk, Serge Jaumain, Valérie Montens, Dictionnaire des patrons en Belgique, Brussels: De Boeck, 1996, p. 476.

3 The foundry changed its name several times. It was successively called: in 1870, the Société Delbèque et Cie; in 1879, the SA des Usines et Fonderies de Baume; in 1882, the SA des Usines Baume-Marpent; and finally, in 1913, the SA Baume & Marpent (Mémoires d’une région: Le Centre, 1830-1914, op. cit., p. 20).

4 See infra, the article by Karima Haoudy, “The Casablanca Summer Theatre by Baume & Marpent”.

5 Register of minutes of the Board of Directors meetings from 1 March 1930 to 20 October 1938, meeting held on 2 January 1933 (Baume & Marpent collection).

6 Register of minutes of the Board of Directors meetings from 21 February 1902 to 27 May 1913, meeting of 21 March 1905 (Baume & Marpent collection).

7 See Michel Thiry, “Raccourcir le temps et l’espace: la conquête du rail par Baume & Marpent,” in Baume & Marpent. De la Haine au Nil… Itinéraire d’un géant, op. cit., p. 129-164.

8 Musée royal de Mariemont, Archives Fonds Faider concernant Baume & Marpent, Historique de l’entreprise, p. 2.

9 Baume & Marpent restored the platform of the Eiffel Tower for the International Exposition dedicated to Art and Technology in Modern Life (Baume & Marpent collection, Fréderic Vande Vijver Gift, Egyptian Division, file on the ribbon-cutting at a factory in Elisabethville, undated [c. 1953], p. 2).

10 Lionel Wiener, op. cit., p. 176.

11 See infra Isabelle Sirjacobs, “On either shore: Baume & Marpent’s Egyptian bridges.”

12 Register of minutes of the Board of Directors meetings from 21 February 1902 to 27 May 1913, meeting of 7 September 1912 (Baume & Marpent collection).

13 Register of minutes of the Board of Directors meetings from 1 May 1930 to 20 October 1939, meeting of 7 March 1932 (Baume & Marpent collection).

14 See infra, I. Sirjacobs, op. cit.

15 Louis Dupont, “Le Nouveau Pont à deux voies sur le Nil aux abords de la station d’Imbaba,” Revue de l’Association des ingénieurs de l’École des mines de Mons, 1924, p. 573-615.

16 Division d’Égypte. Note de Jean Lemaigre, 1953 (Fréderic Vande Vijver Gift, Baume & Marpent collection, Écomusée du Bois-du-Luc).

17 Division d’Égypte. Schéma organique de la Division d’Égypte, 1 January 1954 (Fréderic Vande Vijver Gift, Baume & Marpent collection, Écomusée of Bois-du-Luc).

18 In 1937, the situation changed with the political context, as we will see later. The Anglo-Egyptian Treaty of 1936 and the Montreux Convention of 1937 which ended the system of capitulations changed the profile of foreign companies’ staff.

19 Register of minutes of the Board of Directors meetings from 21 February 1902 to 27 May 1913, meetings held on 14 February 1905 and 14 April 1905 (Baume & Marpent collection).

20 Register of minutes of the Board of Directors meetings from 6 June 1913 to 30 June 1923, meeting of 27 November 1913 (Baume & Marpent collection).

21 Ibid., meeting of 3 March 1914 (Baume & Marpent collection).

22 Correspondence from 13 December 1929 to 22 May 1942, letter of 13 December 1929 (Baume & Marpent collection).

23 Register of minutes of the Board of Directors meetings from 1 May 1930 to 20 October 1939, meeting of 9 March 1937 (Baume & Marpent collection).

24 Register of minutes of the Board of Directors meetings from 1 May 1930 to 20 October 1939, meeting of 3 July 1937 (Baume & Marpent collection).

25 Correspondence from 13 December 1929 to 22 May 1942, letter of 10 March 1936 (Baume & Marpent collection).

26 Report by Jean Carton de Wiart during his stay in Cairo from 15 to 19 May 1953 (Fréderic Vande Vijver Gift, Baume & Marpent collection).

27 Register of minutes of the Board of Directors meetings from 6 June 1913 to 30 June 1923, meetings of 18 September 1920 and 29 November 1920 (Baume & Marpent collection).

28 Register of minutes of the Board of Directors meetings from 1 March 1930 to 20 October 1939, meeting of 7 March 1932 (Baume & Marpent collection).

29 Ibid., meeting of 3 December 1931 (Baume & Marpent collection).

30 Jean-Édouard Goby, “Farid Boulad Bey (1872-1947),” Bulletin de l’Institut d’Égypte, vol. 29-30, 1946-1948, p. 22-36.

31 Farid Boulad Bey, “Sur le calcul des poutres principales des ponts tournants sur couronne de galets,” Congrès international de la construction métallique. Résumés des mémoires, Liège, Techniques des Travaux, 1930, p. 5.

32 Farid Boulad Bey, “Compte rendu de ma mission aux deux congrès internationaux du béton et béton armé et de la construction métallique tenus à Liège du 1er au 7 septembre 1930,” Bulletin de l’Institut d’Égypte, vol. 13, 1930-1931, p. 42.

Table des illustrations

Titre Figure 1: Léon Moyaux, General manager of Baume & Marpent between 1871 and 1902 [undated portrait]
Crédits Source: Baume & Marpent collection, Écomusée du Bois-du-Luc, La Louvière, Belgium
URL http://books.openedition.org/inha/docannexe/image/12684/img-1.jpg
Fichier image/jpeg, 395k
Titre Figure 2: 300-cubic-meter steel water tower erected for the Suez Canal Company, Port Said (1914): Plan, section, and elevation
Crédits Source: Baume & Marpent collection, Écomusée du Bois-du-Luc, La Louvière, Belgium
URL http://books.openedition.org/inha/docannexe/image/12684/img-2.jpg
Fichier image/jpeg, 681k
Titre Figure 3: Locomotive repair shop, Boulaq, Cairo, Baume & Marpent cont.: Interior view
Crédits Source: Baume & Marpent collection, Écomusée du Bois-du-Luc, La Louvière, Belgium
URL http://books.openedition.org/inha/docannexe/image/12684/img-3.jpg
Fichier image/jpeg, 314k
Titre Figure 4: Baume & Marpent brochure: Imbaba Bridge construction, photographed phase by phase
Crédits Source: Baume & Marpent collection, Écomusée du Bois-du-Luc, La Louvière, Belgium
URL http://books.openedition.org/inha/docannexe/image/12684/img-4.jpg
Fichier image/jpeg, 471k
Titre Figure 5: Imbaba Bridge, Cairo (1912-1924), Baume & Marpent, cont.: The swing span, near completion
Crédits Source: Baume & Marpent collection, Écomusée du Bois-du-Luc, La Louvière, Belgium
URL http://books.openedition.org/inha/docannexe/image/12684/img-5.jpg
Fichier image/jpeg, 256k
Titre Figure 6: Egyptian State Railways (1927), Baume & Marpent, cont.: First-class coach monogram design
Crédits Source: Baume & Marpent collection, Écomusée du Bois-du-Luc, La Louvière, Belgium
URL http://books.openedition.org/inha/docannexe/image/12684/img-6.jpg
Fichier image/jpeg, 483k
Titre Figure 7: Hangar for Almaza Airport, Cairo (1933): Plans, sections, and elevations
Crédits Source: Baume & Marpent collection, Écomusée du Bois-du-Luc, La Louvière, Belgium
URL http://books.openedition.org/inha/docannexe/image/12684/img-7.jpg
Fichier image/jpeg, 264k
Titre Figure 8: Suez Canal Company warehouses, Port Tewfik, Suez (1930), Paul Albert, arch.; Baume & Marpent, cont.: Construction on the steel framework
Crédits Source: Baume & Marpent collection, Écomusée du Bois-du-Luc, La Louvière, Belgium
URL http://books.openedition.org/inha/docannexe/image/12684/img-8.jpg
Fichier image/jpeg, 220k
Titre Figure 9: Kosheshah Bridge over the Nile north of Beni Suef (1909): Overall view
Crédits Source: Baume & Marpent collection, Écomusée du Bois-du-Luc, La Louvière, Belgium
URL http://books.openedition.org/inha/docannexe/image/12684/img-9.jpg
Fichier image/jpeg, 103k
Titre Figure 10: Strauss-type bascule bridge on Albert Canal, Belgium (1954), Baume & Marpent cont.: The swing span
Crédits Source: Baume & Marpent collection, Écomusée du Bois-du-Luc, La Louvière, Belgium
URL http://books.openedition.org/inha/docannexe/image/12684/img-10.jpg
Fichier image/jpeg, 347k
Titre Figure 11: The design office drafting room at Baume & Marpent in Belgium
Crédits Source: Baume & Marpent collection, Écomusée du Bois-du-Luc, La Louvière, Belgium
URL http://books.openedition.org/inha/docannexe/image/12684/img-11.jpg
Fichier image/jpeg, 256k

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