Marie-Joseph Farcot
Marie-Joseph-Denis Farcot (1798–1875) was a French engineer, inventor and manufacturer, working mainly with steam engines. His son, Joseph Farcot, was also a noted inventor. Early years Marie-Joseph-Denis Farcot was born in 1798. His father was Joseph Jean Chrysostome Farcot, a former teacher at the college of Juilly, Seine-et-Marne. He was orphaned at a young age, and became an apprentice with Achille Colas and with Jecker, an expert maker of precision instruments. In 1820 he began work in the studio of Chaillot, where he learned steam engine construction. His training led him to create steam engines that were also precise instruments. Manufacturer and inventor In 1823 Farcot established a workshop on the rue Neuve-Sainte-Geneviève. In 1829 he received a bronze medal for two inventions, a variable-speed pump and a pump with two pistons in one body, giving a continuous jet. In 1834 he was awarded a silver medal for an olive oil press. In 1836 Marie-Joseph Farcot patented the first method of steam distribution that gave almost complete variability to the regulator. In 1839 he had transferred his workshop to the rue Moreau, and that year received another silver medal for an innovative steam engine with variable power. In 1846 he