{"id":7028,"date":"2025-02-12T15:53:13","date_gmt":"2025-02-12T14:53:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/leprado.org\/?page_id=7028"},"modified":"2025-02-24T11:18:49","modified_gmt":"2025-02-24T10:18:49","slug":"alfred-ancel-travailleur-a-gerland","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/leprado.org\/en\/alfred-ancel-travailleur-a-gerland\/","title":{"rendered":"Alfred Ancel working at Gerland"},"content":{"rendered":"
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ANCEL 2024 EXHIBITION<\/h1>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Alfred Ancel working at Gerland<\/h2>\n

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Bishop Alfred Ancel found work as a labourer thanks to his contacts as part of his work as a pradosian priest.<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/h5>

Alfred Ancel did not find himself in the job market when he decided to work as a labourer.<\/p>

It was among his acquaintances, people closely linked to the Prado de la Guilloti\u00e8re, that he found an employer. This is clearly indicated by C\u00e9cile Mathias in her book, Gerland on the trail of its past.<\/em> The David family had had links with the Prado since the days of the Second World War. There was just one small problem in Alfred Ancel's life. It was not at the age of 14 that Alfred lost an eye and became one-eyed, but at the age of 19, on 30 December 1917 in the Battle of Monte Grappa in the Veneto region; \"his right eye had been enucleated by a bullet\". <\/em>(Olivier de Beranger, Alfred Ancel<\/em>).<\/em><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Gerland on the trail of its past
C\u00e9cile Mathias and residents of Gerland<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
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Two German family businesses, the Tony David and Guignardat, <\/strong>were also part of the working-class life of the district, one on avenue Jean Jaur\u00e8s and the other on boulevard du Parc d'Artillerie.<\/span><\/p>

The parent company of\u00a0<\/span>Tony David establishments<\/b><\/a>The company was originally located at 19 rue Montesquieu, where it cut fabric in series and to order (for example, cutting flies for ladies' veils). The purchase in 1937 of a carpenter's workshop at 6-8 boulevard du Parc d'Artillerie enabled the company to develop its fabric cutting business, which now includes the manufacture of fabric polishing discs (felt, cotton, wool, etc.).<\/span><\/p>

Customers of Tony David, based in Saint-Etienne, among other places, manufacturers of bicycle parts, started using a brightener in the electrolytic baths and no longer needed as many polishing discs. The company then started to supply them with metals. Then, a new company was created at 6 boulevard du Parc d'Artillerie, the SAM (Soci\u00e9t\u00e9 d'Affinage des M\u00e9taux), to develop the metallurgical activity. A chemist worked there.<\/span><\/p>

During the war, activity slowed down, with the Gerland workshop serving only as a warehouse with seven or eight employees, while the parent company continued production. Nickel stocks were moved to Prado and Beynost to prevent them being requisitioned by the Germans. In 1944, the company was bombed and the equipment, including a huge new metal shear, was completely destroyed. All that was found was a test tube and the SAM chemist's glasses. Everything had to be bought back and rebuilt, and it was difficult to start up again in '45.<\/span><\/p>

\" During the war, our p<\/em>\u00e8<\/em>re would go to get supplies at the family farm in Montferrat, Is<\/em>\u00e8<\/em>He would take the food home and distribute it to the workshop staff (around fifteen people) with their weekly pay.<\/em><\/p>

Our family, who lived in Place Raspail, have always been quite close to the Prado: as we had a car, we provided transport for them when they needed it and former prostitutes, looked after by Sister Anna, were taken on in the family business. <\/em>\"<\/em> Fran\u00e7oise Coiffet and Pierre David<\/p>

The factory was rebuilt in reinforced concrete to modern factory standards, with a loading bay. The plans were drawn up by Charles Joly, the SNCF's architect and a friend of the family. There were offices, a laboratory for the chemist and workshops, including one for electrolysis, one for metal, a large workshop for fabric finishing (to give it the abrasive properties needed for metal polishing) with a calender, dryer and secure finishing tanks, one for cutting, one for beading... There was a very large chimney outside and an automated coal-fired boiler inside (one of the first of its kind at the time) which produced the pressurised steam needed for finishing. The company drew water from the water table and had its own water tank on the roof. In the 1950s, a new finishing process was developed to produce shrink-wrap fabric.<\/p>

\"As far as SAM's metallurgical activity was concerned, several research projects were carried out on Boulevard du Parc d'Artillerie. The development of mercury distillation produced a toxic vapour inside the workshop and our p<\/em>\u00e8<\/em>re had set up a plank estanco on the pavement to carry out his experiments. Subsequently, the distillation of the mercury was subcontracted to<\/em>e.<\/em><\/p>

Our p<\/em>\u00e8<\/em>re used a lot of re<\/em>cup<\/em>This was avant-garde, both for fabric (Second World War capotes, parachutes, etc.) and for metals such as nickel waste from all sources, mixtures of nickel with copper, tin, cadmium, distilled mercury, etc.<\/em>used<\/em>From these metals, he obtained a pure product by electrolysis or chemical process. He worked with professors at the Catholic University, who were chemists.<\/em><\/p>

Another ideal<\/em>e important d<\/em>developed and implemented by our p<\/em>\u00e8<\/em>The nickel was smelted in the forges at Bompertuis, in Is\u00e8re.<\/em>\u00e8<\/em>This was because there wasn't a powerful enough oven on site. Sometimes, the first<\/em>\u00e8<\/em>re coul<\/em>was made by our p<\/em>\u00e8<\/em>re or our uncle, his fr<\/em>\u00e8<\/em>re, who worked with him, so as not to endanger the safety of the workers.<\/em><\/p>

Other operations were carried out by home workers, such as sewing protective velvet gloves for workers handling sheet metal. Similarly, bales of rags were treated and brought up to standard for the company thanks to ex-convicts supervised by the p<\/em>\u00e8<\/em>re Capetier, from Le Prado, as part of their rehabilitation at Saint-L\u00e9onard, near Albigny, for which he was responsible and which functioned a bit like a CAT. In 1940, there were also political prisoners in Saint-L\u00e9onard who worked for us. The p<\/em>\u00e8<\/em>re Ancel, <\/em>a working-class bishop living in the Prado community on rue Hector Malot, an intellectual from a large silk-making family, was banned from working in factories by Rome. He too cut fabric for our p<\/em>\u00e8<\/em>re, at home, for three or four years but, having been one-eyed since the age of 14, he had a tr<\/em>\u00e8<\/em>s poor performance. He learned the trade in Saint-L\u00e9onard between 1954 and 1958.<\/em><\/p>

In the 1950s, around sixty people worked at Gerland, the vast majority of them women. There were two managers (our p<\/em>\u00e8<\/em>re, a salesman, and our uncle, an engineer), an executive secretary for payroll, another secretary, an accountant, a delivery driver, a maintenance manager, workshop foremen and workers. The work was dirty but safe and largely automated. There were also some Algerian immigrants. The company was paternalistic and the staff were attached to it. So, as the family owned a building on rue Jangot, when there were vacant flats, they rented them out to their employees. <\/em>\" <\/em>Fran\u00e7oise Coiffet and Pierre David<\/p>

The company's customers were the Peugeot, Seb, Tefal and La Solac factories (tinning, tin cans, Formica (polishing of Formica press forms)). Everything that was made of shiny metal (cutlery, watches, cars, tin cans, frying pans, etc.) went through David's polishing discs. The company also made polishing paste on the rue du B\u00e9guin. The only competitors were the Germans.<\/p>

Excerpt from the book Gerland on the trail of its past<\/b>by C\u00e9cile Mathias and the residents of Gerland, published by Mot Passant, 2010, pages 30 and 32.<\/i><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Alfred\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tThe end of life<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

EXPO ANCEL 2024 Alfred Ancel worker in Gerland Bishop Alfred Ancel found work as a labourer thanks to his connections as part of his commitments as a pradosian priest Alfred Ancel did not find himself on the job market when he decided to work as a labourer. It was among his acquaintances, people ... <\/p>\n

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