Maus was born in Namur (then in Sambre-et-Meuse, French First Empire) on 22 October 1808, the grandson of a German who had settled in the city around 1750.
[1] In 1845 Maus was recruited by King Charles Albert of Sardinia to assist in designing a line running from Turin south-eastwards to Genoa on the Mediterranean coast and north-westwards to Chambéry in Savoy.
He declined the position of chief railway engineer to the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, and in 1857 was reappointed as a full-time functionary of the Belgian state.
[1] In 1864 he was seconded to the city of Brussels for preliminary works relating to the covering of the Senne, and also became a member of the Royal Academy of Science, Letters and Fine Arts of Belgium.
[1] As a consultant he advised on plans to provide clean water to the city of Brussels, and to build a bridge over the Rhine at Basel (the Wettsteinbrücke).