[2] In 1869 he founded his own company, "Forges de Couzon", to make wheels and axles for locomotives and railway wagons.

[1] With no political background, Arbel was the National Assembly candidate for Loire of the Conservative Republicans in the 8 February 1871 elections.

Later he spoke against the Albert de Broglie ministry, and voted for the proposal by Pascal Duprat to elect senators by universal suffrage, and for all the constitutional laws.

[1] The sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, the designer of the Statue of Liberty, exhibited a bust of Lucien Arbel in the Salon of 1879.

[6] He sat on the center left in the Senate, and he constantly voted with that caucus until 5 January 1888, when he was replaced by M. Brunon, another ironmaster and republican candidate.

[3] In 1882 a forty-ton steam hammer designed by Lucien Arbel and built by the Compagnie de l'Horme was installed at the works in Rive-de-Gier.