Jacques Triger
Jacques Triger (10 March 1801 – 16 December 1867) was a French geologist who invented the 'Triger process' for digging through waterlogged ground using a pressurised caisson.
Triger was deputy director of coal mining operations in Chalonnes-sur-Loire (Maine-et-Loire).
In 1839, working in Anjou (Maine-et-Loire) in connection with coal mining, Triger began to consider how to reach solid rock beneath about 20 metres of permanently waterlogged ground. He became convinced that he could use compressed air to help penetrate this layer of soil, using a pressurised caisson.
With the financial and administrative support of Emmanuel de Las Cases, Triger sank a wrought iron cylinder, using pumps of his design to provide a smoothly-delivered supply of compressed air of sufficient pressure to force out all the water, enabling the men to excavate the sand, gravel, and stone to such a depth that when the cylinder was sunk to a water-tight stratum, the compressed air was no longer necessary. Triger is credited with devising the airlock [however, there are other claimants], essential to allow the men to enter and leave. Triger recorded the first cases of decompression sickness in miners. [1]
For more information, see Triger Process (le procédé Triger).