Jean-Marie-Joseph Coutelle (3 January 1748, Le Mans

Le Mans

Le Mans is a city in France, located on the Sarthe River. Traditionally the capital of the province of Maine, it is now the capital of the Sarthe department and the seat of the Roman Catholic diocese of Le Mans. Le Mans is a part of the Pays de la Loire region.Its inhabitants are called Manceaux...

 - 20 March 1835, 11th arrondissement, Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

) was a French engineer, scientist and pioneer of ballooning.

Life

He got to know the physicist Alexandre Charles and, in the wake of the experiences of the Montgolfier brothers

Montgolfier brothers

Joseph-Michel Montgolfier and Jacques-Étienne Montgolfier were the inventors of the montgolfière-style hot air balloon, globe aérostatique. The brothers succeeded in launching the first manned ascent, carrying Étienne into the sky...

, Coutelle and Charles became interested in balloons. On 2 April 1794 the National Convention

National Convention

During the French Revolution, the National Convention or Convention, in France, comprised the constitutional and legislative assembly which sat from 20 September 1792 to 26 October 1795 . It held executive power in France during the first years of the French First Republic...

 made Coutelle a captain and first officer of the Company of Aeronauts and ordered him to build balloons to aid the French Revolutionary armies

French Revolutionary Army

The French Revolutionary Army is the term used to refer to the military of France during the period between the fall of the ancien regime under Louis XVI in 1792 and the formation of the First French Empire under Napoleon Bonaparte in 1804. These armies were characterised by their revolutionary...

. In this role Coutelle was attached to the French invasion of Egypt of 1798 under Napoleon Bonaparte

Napoleon I of France

Napoleon Bonaparte was a French military and political leader during the latter stages of the French Revolution.As Napoleon I, he was Emperor of the French from 1804 to 1815...

, but he was unable to function in this role in Egypt since the warship carrying his materials was severely damaged by fire.

Instead he became one of the scholars of the Commission des Sciences et des Arts. In November 1800 Coutelle and the mining engineer Rozière

François Michel de Rozière

François Michel de Rozière was a French mining engineer.-Life:He was a member of the Commission des Sciences et des Arts during the French invasion of Egypt of 1798 and travelled up and down the Nile valley looking for stones of all kinds. In January 1799 he explored the Fayum region...

 were authorised to accompany the great caravan of Tor, which was heading to Sinai with 1,800 camels. A member of the Costaz

Louis Costaz

Louis, baron Costaz Louis, baron Costaz Louis, baron Costaz (17 March 1767, Champagne-en-Valromey (Bugey – 15 February 1842, Paris was a French scientist and administrator.His brother Gastroass was bishop of Nancy. After studying maths, he taught at the military school at Thiron until 1793,...

 commission, he began to admire the two obelisks at Luxor

Luxor

Luxor is a city in Upper Egypt and the capital of Luxor Governorate. The population numbers 487,896 , with an area of approximately . As the site of the Ancient Egyptian city of Thebes, Luxor has frequently been characterized as the "world's greatest open air museum", as the ruins of the temple...

 and suggested to the Institut d'Égypte

Institut d'Égypte

The Institut d’Égypte was a learned academy formed by Napoleon Bonaparte to carry out research during his Egyptian campaign.-Early work:It first met on 24 August 1798, with Gaspard Monge as president, Bonaparte himself as vice-president and Joseph Fourier and Costaz as secretaries...

 a new way of transporting one of them

Luxor Obelisk

The Luxor Obelisk is a 23 metres high Egyptian obelisk standing at the center of the Place de la Concorde in Paris, France...

 to France - 30 years later, a similar method to his suggestion was used to transport one to the Place de la Concorde

Place de la Concorde

The Place de la Concorde in area, it is the largest square in the French capital. It is located in the city's eighth arrondissement, at the eastern end of the Champs-Élysées.- History :...

 in Paris, where it now stands. He also used his ballooning expertise for Napoleon's planned invasion of Britain. He became a member of the Légion d’honneur on 17 January 1805, then a Chevalier de l’Empire on 28 June 1809. He died in 1835 and was buried in the 11th division of the cimetière du Père-Lachaise - his tomb was restored in 2004 by the "Souvenir français".