Ernest Guglielminetti

Ernest Guglielminetti (born 23 November 1862, Brig-Glis; died 20 February 1943, Geneva) was a Swiss medical doctor.

Biography

He studied medicine in Switzerland and received his doctorate in Bern on 1886.^[1] Then he travelled around the world and went as a military doctor to the Dutch Indies (Java, Sumatra) and later to the British North Borneo tobacco plantations.^[1]

In 1891 he developed a self-contained breathing apparatus for mountaineers, firefighters and frogmen.^[2]

On 1894, he settled in Monaco where he met Prince Albert I who asked him what could be done to ban the dust stirred up by the first motor vehicles. He applied an idea found in Indonesian hospitals where wooden floors were coated with tar: he developed a new mixture of tar, gravel and sand for binding the dust.

On 13 March 1902, in Monaco, the tar street was invented^[3]^[4] and Dr E. Guglielminetti was given the nickname "Dr Goudron" (Dr "Tar").^[5]

A monument next to the Saltina bridge in Brig commemorates Ernest Guglielminetti.^[6]

References

^ ^a ^b "Dr Ernest Guglielminetti" (in French). Journal et feuille d’avis du Valais. 24 November 1932. p. 1. Retrieved 13 February 2021.
^ Paul Heldner: Ernest Guglielminetti in German, French and Italian in the online Historical Dictionary of Switzerland.
^ "History of asphalt road construction - Tar road construction". Archived from the original on 13 November 2013. Retrieved 31 July 2013.
^ "Une route pavée d'honneurs". Le Nouvelliste (in French) (61): 38. 14 March 2002. Retrieved 13 February 2021.
^ Emery Mayor, Danielle. "Docteur Goudron était valaisan" (PDF). Histoire et Traditions. Retrieved 31 July 2013.
^ "Brig Belalp tourism - Guglielminetti monument". Archived from the original on 10 April 2013. Retrieved 31 July 2013.