François Prudent Bourdon (29 July 1797 – 19 April 1865) was a French engineer and inventor, mainly interested in development of steam-powered boats for inland navigation.

[1] At Saint-Laurent-sur-Saône, a town opposite Mâcon, Francois and his brother Auguste ran an establishment whose main purpose was steam-powered wheat milling.

[3] In 1824 at Lyon, on the Saône between la Mulatière and the île Barbe, Bourdon made several attempts at steam-powered towing.

[1] Bourdon's first job was to modernize the works by installing the high-powered rolling mills needed to manufacture long lengths of rail for the railway lines in France.

[4] In 1836 the brothers Adolphe and Eugène Schneider acquired the works at Le Creusot with investments by François Alexandre Seillière and Louis Boigues.

[3] They hired Bourdon in March 1837 to modernize the plant, which had been idle for three years, and to run the mechanical engineering workshops.

During its trials on 17 January 1841 the boiler exploded in the presence of Eugène Schneider, François Bourdon and his father-in-law Antoine Henri Pognon, mayor of Creusot and chief accountant of the works.

[7] In 1843-44 Bourdon made five large river cargo boats, Creusot, Mississippi, Missouri, Althen and Talabot.

[1] He designed a complete set of tools for construction of locomotives, and developed techniques for shaping iron components using a hydraulic press.

[10] Around the same time, Nasmyth was faced with the problem of forging a 30 inches (760 mm) diameter shaft for a paddle steamer, larger than any that had been previously made.

He came up with his own steam hammer design, making a sketch dated 24 November 1839, but the immediate need disappeared when the practicality of screw propellers was demonstrated.

He would attend opening ceremonies for his hammers, and would demonstrate that they were so finely machined that it could crack the top of an egg sitting in a wine glass.

He installed a large hydraulic machine at the Marseille docks designed by George Armstrong, the famous English engineer, among other works.