Emile Cheysson 1

Emile Cheysson


Only a small memorial stone on a portal, with a simple and laconic text, so is Emile Cheysson’s memory in Chiroubles.
He was born on the 18th of May 1836 in Nîmes (South of France). In 1870 he bought in Chiroubles the vineyard which is called nowadays after his name “Le domaine Cheysson".

plaque cheysson

Plaque commémorative

The civil engineer and statistician

Polytechnician (promotion 1854), engineer of bridges and roads, he advocates geometric statistics through the 17 albums of graphic statistics published between 1879 and 1899 under his direction:

"If the graphic statistic, although born yesterday, extends its domain every day, it is that it advantageously replaces the long paintings of figures and that it allows, not only to kick the eye series of phenomena, but also to point out their reports or anomalies, to find the causes, to identify the laws."

le creusot - villedieu

The social ingeneer

Following Frédéric Le Play (1806-1882), he became interested in relationship between the world of work and the family.

"It is not all over between the boss and the worker after delivery of the workforce and his payment".

It offers a new function in the company: "the social engineer".
The HLM ('housing at moderate rent') movement recognizes it today as one of its founders.

In 1869 Cheysson published a brochure:
"Le Creusot,condition matérielle, intellectuelle et morale de la population"
It was undoubtedly this social orientation which made it choose as director of the forges of Creusot on August 15, 1871after the strikes of 1869-1870 and the explosion of the "Commune de Paris".