Abstract
This article reviews the Polish episode in the career of a French engineer Jean-Claude Pingeron (1730 or 1735–1795). Pingeron, born in Lyon and educated in one of the French schools of artillery, moved to Poland in 1762. First employed by Saxon diplomats in Warsaw, he subsequently went into the service of magnate families: the Sanguszkos and the Zamoyskis. In July 1763, he became the commander of the fortress in Zamość and began to work on a project of the town’s modernisation. Because of his conflict with the crew of the fortress, his ideas were never implemented and the Zamoyskis dismissed him. When back in France, Pingeron focused mainly on journalism and the popularisation of science and technology. This article discusses the decisive factors in his failure to make his career in Poland, and attempts to explain the role which factors like sociability, rivalry and social network played in that failure.
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