Max Ringelmann

Maximilien Ringelmann (1861 to 1931) was a French professor of agricultural engineering and agronomic engineer who was involved in the scientific testing and development of agricultural machinery. Born in Paris, he studied at the Institut National Agronomique and taught rural engineering at the National School of Agriculture at Grand Jouan from 1881. At the request of Eugène Tisserand of the Ministry of Agriculture he drafted plans for a facility to test agricultural machinery, which opened in Paris in 1888 with him as director, and he designed instruments such as traction dynamometers to measure the efficiency of farm machines. He was elected to the Académie d'Agriculture in 1887, taught at Grignon, succeeded Hervé Mangon at the Institut National Agronomique in 1897 and in 1902 became professor of colonial rural engineering at Nogent-sur-Marne. He also devised the Ringelmann smoke scale and the Ringelmann effect in social psychology.