Charles Pigeon

Birth Name:
Charles-Joseph Pigeon
Birth Date:
March 29, 1838
Birth Place:
Le Mesnil-Lieubray, Normandy, France
Death Date:
March 18, 1915
Place of Death:
54 Rue de Rennes, Paris, France
Age:
76
Cause of Death:
Natural causes
Cemetery Name:
Cimetière du Montparnasse
Claim to Fame:
Science
Charles-Joseph Pigeon started as a salesman in department store Le Bon Marché in Paris, where he became a close friend of Ernest Cognacq. Together they became partners and co-founders of the Samaritaine department stores. Pigeon became a dealer in cycle lamps, mining lamps and other combustible lamps. On June 9, 1884 he obtained a patent for his new lamp, the Pigeon lamp, a non-exploding gasoline lamp. He began to design, manufacture and sell his new invention across Europe and later that year he exhibited his Pigeon Lamps at the Exposition universelle de 1900) which subsequently made him famous and very, very wealthy.

Fun Fact

Today Charles Pigeon is not remembered for his revolutionary invention, but rather his phenomenal  gravesite in Paris, France. After his death he remains noted for his family grave in Montparnasse Cemetery in Paris, which he commissioned in 1905 to hold up to 18 family members. The main feature is a life-sized bronze sculpture of Pigeon (notebook and pencil in hand) and his wife lying on a bed, overlooked by an angel, which had been illuminated by a lamp for many years by his custodians.

Cemetery Information:

Final Resting Place:

Cimetière du Montparnasse

3 Bd Edgar Quinet

Paris, , 75014

France

Europe

Map:

Map of Cimetière du Montparnasse in Paris, France
Map of Cimetière du Montparnasse in Paris, France

Grave Location:

Division 22

Grave Location Description

As you enter the cemetery from Gate 3 (at the intersection of Blvd Edgar Quinet and Blvd Raspail) walk straight ahead Rue Emile Richard and turn left onto Avenue Thierry. Follow this path around to the right and look to your left for the perhaps the grandest of all family monuments in Paris – the final resting place of Charles Pigeon.

Grave Location GPS

48.838227112286255, 2.3302259220006407

Visiting The Grave:

Photos:

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