page_title: Camille Cavallier
section_title: Growing responsibility (1875–99)
hierarchical_section_title: Camille Cavallier / Growing responsibility (1875–99)
caption_attribution_description: English: Camille Cavallier meeting union leaders in 1908
context_page_description: Camille Cavallier was a French industrialist who directed the Pont-à-Mousson iron works in Lorraine in the first quarter of the 20th century, specializing in making cast iron pipes.
  He came from a poor family but obtained a good technical education and joined the iron maker as an employee in 1874.
  He rose rapidly through the ranks, and started to acquire shares.
  Soon after taking charge of the company he became the largest shareholder.
  He quadrupled production in the years leading up to World War I.
  The company was devastated by the war, but Cavallier managed to bring production back up to prewar levels before his death.
context_section_description: Camille Cavallier was first assigned to the "flat" foundry, then in 1876 to the "standing" foundry dedicated to making iron gutters and pipes.
  In 1877 Rogé gave him charge of the newly created commercial service.
  The job was to establish regional agencies, monitor demand, watch competitors and draw up quotations for tenders.
  He achieved excellent results in selling the cast iron pipes, and in 1883 won the tenders for the city of Paris.
  Rogé decided to groom Cavallier as his successor, and in the 1880s Cavallier became in effect the director-general, although Rogé retained that title.
  Cavallier did not limit himself to the commercial side, but played a large role in building up the company's mining assets.
  The company depended on the Marbache and Custines mines in the Nancy Basin, which delivered about 100,000 tons of ore annually.
  After surveys of the Millery region the company asked for a mining concession there, but was refused.
  Xavier Rogé began to investigate land around Auboué near the part of Lorraine that had been annexed by Germany, and on 1 December 1882 found the upper layers of the iron oxide formation of the Briey Basin.
  The survey then stopped, since the company undertaking it declared that the iron oxide formation had been completely crossed.
  Cavallier thought there could be lower layers, and obtained permission to continue the survey.
  In April 1883 a layer 4 metres (13 ft) thick was found, and on 11 August 1884 the Société de Pont-à-Mousson was granted the concession.
  The technicians said that it would be very difficult to pass through the overburden above the Auboué ore deposit due to the amount of water it contained.
  Cavallier decided to proceed anyway, using the freezing method to pass through the 100 metres (330 ft) aquifer layer, although this method had not been used for more than 60 metres (200 ft) in the past. The gamble succeeded.
  The Pont-à-Mousson ironworks was transformed into a societe anonyme in 1886, with Xavier Rogé as its sole administrator.
  Rogé fell seriously ill in 1888 and depended more and more on Cavallier, then aged 34.
  On 17 August 1888 the company was granted the Vieux-Château concession, and on 25 May 1892 was granted the Belleville concession, both in the Nancy Basin.
  The company acquired the Malzéville and Grande Goutte mines in the Nancy Basin.
  In the 1890s the blast furnaces were fitted with Cowper regenerative heat exchangers.
  Until 1889 Cavallier had no shares in the company.
  In 1890 he acquired 100 shares, and in 1898 another 136.
  When Rogé was sick Cavallier acted as the effective head of the company, and on 15 January 1895 he was named deputy director.
  About 1878 Camille Cavallier married Thérèse Julie Mangeot (c. 1855–1933).
  Their children were Charles (1879–1930) and Jeanne Marguerite Françoise (b. c. 1882).
  Around 1908 his daughter married Marcel Paul (1879–1946), who changed his name to Marcel Paul-Cavallier.
caption: Camille Cavallier meeting union leaders in 1908
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