page_title: Georges Rolland
section_title: Early years
hierarchical_section_title: Georges Rolland / Early years
caption_attribution_description: English: Georges Rolland (23 January 1852 – 25 July 1910) was a French geologist, explorer and industrialist. Picture taken while he was a student at the Ecole des Mines de Paris (1874 - 1877)
context_page_description: Georges Rolland was a French geologist and industrialist, a member of the Corps des mines, who worked in Algeria in the 1880s.
  He made important discoveries about the underground hydrology of the Sahara.
  He was a leading advocate of a trans-Sahara railway to link French colonial possessions in West Africa.
  After returning to France he explored the geology of the Briey iron ore basin in Lorraine.
  He married the heiress of a Lorraine steelworks, and became president of the Société métallurgique de Gorcy and the Aciéries de Longwy, and director of various other enterprises.
context_section_description: Georges Rolland was born in Paris on 23 January 1852.
  His parents were Gustave Rolland (1809–71) and Bernardine Marie Léonie Dauss.
  His father was a former officer of the Engineers who became a Deputy.
  His uncle was the inventor Eugène Rolland (1812–85).
  At a very young age he was accepted by the École Navale and the École Polytechnique, and chose the École Polytechnique.
  Rolland studied at the École Polytechnique from 1871 to 1874, graduating fourth out of 93.
  He went on to the École des Mines de Paris, where he studied from 1874 to 1877 and graduated in second place.
  Rolland became an engineer in the Corps des mines in 1877, attached to the office of Charles de Freycinet, Minister of Public Works.
  In 1877 he took part in the steam engines section of the Exposition Universelle.
caption: Georges Rolland as a student at the Ecole des Mines de Paris (1874–77)
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