Retrospective: ‘Celebrating 200 years of amazement with Vicat’
The Vicat Group and its corporate foundation pay hommage to Louis Vicat and his discovery through an itinerant exhibition.
The demystification of artificial cement induced spectacular changes in the art of construction. In 1817, Louis Vicat, freshly graduated from the Ponts et Chaussées engineering school, grasped the principles behind the hydraulic phenomena at play in lime and cement, opening the way for the controlled manufacture of artificial cement. Preferring “the glory of being useful to that of being wealthy”, as Baron Thénard put it, Louis Vicat chose not patent his work and to make his discoveries freely available to all.
In the bicentennial year of the demystification of artificial cement, we wanted to pay hommage to Louis Vicat through an itinerant exhibition, ‘Celebrating 200 years of amazement with Vicat’. It premiered on the premises of the Society for the Encouragement of National Industry in Paris as part of the European Heritage Days, then hit the road to present the history and the work of Louis Vicat and the ensuing innovations throughout the country.
