Raoul Mesnier du Ponsard

Raoul Mesnier du Ponsard (São Nicolau, Porto, 2 April 1848 — Inhambane, Mozambique 26 May 1914) was a Portuguese engineer of French parentage, known for building many elevators and funiculars in Portugal.

Other of his works were decommissioned in later years: the lifts at Biblioteca and Chiado, and the cable-cars serving Graça, Estrela, and São Sebastião.

Mesnier contributed engineering designs for three Lisbon cable-car lines: Graça, Estrela, and São Sebastião.

[3]: 73  Unlike the San Francisco cable-car lines, Lisbon's did not run on generally wide and straight streets.

[2] In 1903, a syndicate that included Mesnier petitioned for a concession[7] to build an aerial cableway system in São Tomé e Principe to transport goods over its steep terrain and to provide mechanical power to remote locations where needed for industrial work, e.g. logging activity.

Also in 1903, Mesnier made a bid to the minister of the Navy for a concession to operate an electrically powered system for ship cargo and train loading and unloading at the port of Lourenco Marques (Maputo), Mozambique.

Pending successful patent awards for the equipment, he hoped to form a company and find investors to build and operate the facility.