As the 20th century dawned, the second Industrial Revolution, also known as the Technological Revolution, was moving ahead full steam. The Bessemer steel process had become the first inexpensive way to mass-produce steel from pig iron, which resulted in a building boom. Automobiles were on the way to becoming a more common sight on the streets of major cities than horse-drawn carriages. The gas lamp was making way for the more efficient and safer incandescent light bulb.
At that time, Frenchman Andre Petit had just graduated from the renowned Ecole Centrale Engineers’ College in Paris with a degree in engineering. Taking a job in the gold-mining industry, he found himself traveling throughout central Asia, even as far as China. He also found himself wondering how he could improve the operational performance and reliability of the industrial pumps that were used to transfer water and other produced liquids out of gold mines.