Henri Maus

Henri Maus (1808 to 1893) was a Belgian railway engineer, credited as the inventor of the first tunnel boring machine. Born in Namur, he began as a mineralogist and coal mine manager before turning to steam railways in 1835. He designed the inclined elevator that let trains climb from Liege up to Ans, which opened in 1842 and was regarded across Europe as a breakthrough. Recruited in 1845 by the King of Sardinia to help plan a railway from Turin toward Chambery, he faced a long Alpine tunnel that existing methods would have needed decades to dig, and he answered with a hydraulically powered tunneling machine. Back in Belgium from 1854, he served the state, advised on water supply and the covering of the Senne in Brussels, and became a member of the Royal Academy of Belgium.