Invention Timeline - Pierre Joseph Laurent, French Engineer; Drained Marshes in Flanders and Hainault
b. ? 1715 and d. ? 1773
French engineer. He drained marshes in Flanders and Hainault, which had been abandoned as impracticable; and also constructed sluices in rivers. The falls of water at Brunoy and Chaunteloup were his work. He constructed an artificial arm for an invalid soldier.
Difficult? Yes, it will be difficult. The short-
fiber Cotton; that too was difficult. The waste
cotton-shrub, long useless, disobedient, as the thistle
by the wayside,-have ye not conquered it; made it into
beautiful bandana webs: White woven shirts for men;
bright-tinted air-garments wherein flit goddesses?
Ye have shivered mountains asunder, made the hard
iron pliant to you as soft putty; the Forest-giants,
Marsh-jötuns bear sheaves of golden grain; Ægir the
Sea-demon himself stretches his back for a sleek
highway to you, and on Firehorses and Windhorses
ye career. Ye are most strong. Thor red-bearded,
with his blue sun-eyes, with his cheery heart and
strong thunder-hammer, he and you have prevailed.
Ye are most strong, ye Sons of the icy North, of
the far East,- far marching from your rugged
Eastern Wilderness, hitherward from the gray Dawn
of Time! Ye are Sons of the Jötun-land; the land
of Difficulties Conquered. Difficult? You must
try this thing. Once try it with the understanding
that it will and shall have to be done.
—Past and Present: Carlyle
