Who was Louis Lépine, who left his identify within the well-known competitors? | EUROtoday

On Apr 29, 2025

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OIt owes him, evenly, the ball pen, pedestrian passages, driving license and even the scientific police. He is Louis Lépine, whose identify has gone to posterity for having created in 1901 the worldwide exhibition competitors which sacred one of the best innovations annually. SA 124^e Edition opens this Wednesday, April 30, amongst different highlights of the Paris Fair…

But the heritage of Louis Lépine shouldn’t be restricted to this competitors, as well-known as it’s. This determine of the III^e Republic, many instances embellished for companies rendered to the nation, has additionally deeply reformed the police and the French city house.

From the bar to the prefecture

Louis Jean-Baptiste Lépine was born in Lyon, August 6, 1846. When he had simply completed his legislation research, the French Empire declared warfare on Prussia. Volunteer, he acquired the medal of navy advantage earlier than returning to civil life as a lawyer.

Read too Why do the compasses don’t level to the geographic north poleA bar he determined to go away in 1877 to enter the administration. His new profession leads him specifically to the Montbrison sub-prefecture, the place he met his spouse Marie Dulac, and on the head of the Loire division. In this place, he illustrated by his involvement and his braveness: he was awarded the rescue medal for having been current within the first rescue dumpster after a shot of Grisou in Saint-Etienne.

These qualities and his with out fault earned him to be appointed prefect of police in Paris in 1893 following the riots of the Latin district, who violently opposed the scholars to the police. He officiated there till 1913, aside from a mandate from Governor General of Algeria (1897-1899).

He is nicknamed the “Rue Prefect”

Upon his arrival within the capital, Louis Lépine should cope with a police inherited from the Second Empire, not very skilled and discredited after the latest riots. An issue all of the extra worrying because the socio -political context is tense: the Republic is torn by the Dreyfus affair and weakened by anarchist and nationalist terrorism.

In order to make sure the upkeep of order and restore the bond of belief with the inhabitants, the prefect initiates deep reforms. Among probably the most emblematic, the creation of the river brigade, the biking brigade (whose brokers have been nicknamed the swallows, in reference to the bicycle model) and the Cynophile Brigade.

It can be Louis Lépine who laid the primary stone of the long run scientific police by establishing the service of judicial id, whose mission is to gather and analyze the proof. Precious parts for investigators, akin to these of the chief’s brigade, who will later grow to be the legal brigade, newly established by the prefect to struggle towards the abuses of the Parisian gangs (the Apaches, the band to Bonnot) prevailing on the time …

Read too Why was Émile Zola refused 25 instances on the French Academy? Another web site initiated by Louis Lépine: that of highway security and concrete overhaul. Each day, 1000’s of horses, fiaments and the primary automobiles meet in Paris, the place site visitors is anarchic … and due to this fact harmful, together with for peacekeepers liable for regulating it. Louis Lépine groups the latter with luminous sticks and wheeled whistles to assist them streamline it.

And with a view to reorganize site visitors, the one who’s now nicknamed “the prefect of the street” establishes distinctive and roundabout senses, in addition to pedestrian passages. Finally, it requires a certificates of capability for the driving of mechanical autos, the ancestor of the driving license … So many inventions that enhance the day by day lifetime of Parisians, to which Louis Lépine additionally enjoys a brand new service of discovered objects. But it’s because of its motion for the craftsmen of the capital that its identify is immortalized.

A spot in his identify

At the start of the XX^e Century, toy and trinket producers have been hardly affected by German competitors. To promote their merchandise, they promote it on the spot on the sidewalks of the capital. Rather than suppressing them, Louis Lépine launched an annual exhibition in 1901 to allow them to current their creations to the general public.

To uncover

The kangaroo of the day

Answer

Subject to an professional jury, one of the best of them are rewarded. The Lépine competitors was born … In 124 years, he noticed 1000’s of innovations hatch, together with steam iron, ballpoint pen, contact lenses or the potato constitution on which Moulinex has constructed his success …

Read too The longest conclave in historical past has lasted … virtually three yearsThat of Louis Lépine within the administration was distinguished by the granting of the very best nationwide distinction: the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor. After his dying in 1933 on the age of 87, the place on the foot of the Paris prefecture was renamed in his honor. This visionary reformist additionally impressed fiction: he is likely one of the heroes of the sequence Paris Police 1900And Paris Police 1905. Another technique to pay tribute to his outstanding achievements.

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