page_title: Armand Chappée
section_title: Life
hierarchical_section_title: Armand Chappée / Life
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Ceriseaux (Souppes-sur-Loing, Seine-et-Marne, France)&#160;; bouche d'incendie Chappée (modèle 5A)
context_page_description: Armand Chappée was a French iron master, founder of the Chappée group. He was the son of a grocer, found work as an accountant at an iron foundry near Le Mans, married the owner's daughter and became owner in turn. He built up the factory, introduced modern technology and made the Chappée brand of cast iron products widely recognised. He was a paternalistic employer who provided many benefits to his workers. His political views were described as "militant reactionary".
context_section_description: Armand-Alexandre Chappée was born in Auteuil, Oise, on April 30, 1835, son of Michel Alexandre Chappée, a grocer and Sophie-Joséphine Doré. 
  His mother was first cousin of Victor Doré.
  Armand Chappée began work in agriculture, then in 1856 became secretary-accountant at the Antoigné factory.
  He married his second cousin Victoire Julienne Doré, eldest daughter of Victor Doré, on 7 September 1858.
  He joined the company with 20,000 francs from his parents and a dowry of 40,000 francs from his wife.
  Chappée soon became the closest partner of his father in law.
  In 1860 Joseph Chevé left the company.
  That year the charcoal blast furnace, destroyed by a fire, was replaced by cupola furnaces which remelted English cast iron.
  At the start of 1861 the workforce had dropped from 111 to 70 workers, mostly producing pipes, but by June 1862 there were 166 workers, including 28 women and 6 children, and by 1872 there were 200 workers.
  In 1867 Doré was made a knight of the Legion of Honour.
  He had two daughters, the second of whom married a M. Martin.
  Doré divided his company between his two sons in law, and Chappée received the Antoigné factory.
  The factory had been modernized, and working hours had been reduced to 11 hours per day, from 6 am to 6 pm with an hour for lunch at noon.
  There were also rotating night shifts of no more than 12 hours.
  Women worked only 9 hours per day.
  As of 1889 the Antoigné factory was connected by a 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) steam tramway to the Montbizot station on the railway from Le Mans to Caen.
  It included foundry, forge and construction workshops.
  It specialized in manufacturing water and gas piping, building and mechanical parts, railway and tramway equipment, bearings, turntables, railway changes and crossovers, hydraulic cranes etc. It had hydraulic motors of about 200 horsepower, backed up by steam engines in case of drought or excess water.
  Chappée  was the sole owner.
  In 1882 Chappée bought the factory at Port-Brillet, Mayenne, from Paillard-Ducléré et Cie.
  That year the Port-Brillet facility produced 100 tons of castings daily.
  Chappée undertook a major expansion.
  Port-Brillet foundry had been built by Michel de Guerne in 1619, with water-powered forges coming into operation in 1623.
  The factory at Port-Brillet was on the line from Paris to Brest.
  For a long time it was an iron forge, and only became a foundry around 1840.
  At the time of the Exposition Universelle (1889) the factory was engaged in secondary melting and produced light products such as pots, stoves, irons and other commercial goods.
  It was powered by a hydraulic force of 80 horsepower.
  The water rarely failed, but a steam engine was available as a back-up power supply.
  There were about 250 workers, including about 10 women.
  The industrialists of Normandy, Maine and Anjou did little to promote their products, rarely exhibiting them outside their region, and rarely filing patents.
  Armand Chappée was one of three entrepreneurs from Sarthe who accounted for almost 90% of patents in the region in the 1880s, the other two being the hemp-weaver Louis-Antoine Bary and Ernest-Sylvain Bollée.
  The Chappée products won prizes in Angers (1871), Paris (1878), Le Mans (1880), Sidney (1880), Melbourne (1881), Paris (1881), Blois (1883), Caen (1883) and Amsterdam (1889).
  Chappée's exhibit at the Exposition Universelle (1889) won a Grand Prix.
  The display was almost 8 metres (26 ft) across and showed all the company's products.
  The centerpiece was a cast iron reproduction of a monumental fountain in Louis XVI style, with a basin from which a nymph emerged spilling water from an urn. Around this, in carefully arranged disarray, were cast iron pots, irons, weights for scales, fireplace grills, small stoves, boxes, copying presses, sewer grills, locks, umbrella stands, fire hydrants and valves.
  There were many pipes, a candelabra, washtub, bakery oven, screw press, gargoyles, feet for garden benches and many other objects.
  Elsewhere the company exhibited a mobile oven on wheels that was used by the army to cook meat, but could also be used for bakery an
caption: Chappée fire hydrant
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