He did not succeed in getting the Khedive Muhammad Ali Pasha to be interested, but was able to discuss his ideas with the French consul de Lesseps, with Linant de Bellefonds, a high ranking engineer in the Egyptian public works administration, and with lieutenant Waghorn, the developer of the Overland Route.
Members of the society set up by Enfantin in 1846 were the French Enfantin, Arlès-Dufour, Jules, Lon and Paulin Talabot, the British Robert Stephenson and Edward Starbuck, the Austrian Alois Negrelli, inspector of the Emperor Ferdinand Northern Railway, and Feronce and Sellier of Leipzig as representatives of the German interest.
The Society was not intended to be a purely private matter, but was seen as a semi official commission supported by the Khedive and by Linant-Bey in the public works department.
They found that the difference in levels between the Mediterranean and Red Sea was negligible,[2] contrary to the conclusions of Jacques-Marie Le Père, an engineer on Bonaparte's Egyptian Expedition, who had calculated a difference of some 9 m.[3] Following the revolutions of 1848, the increasing importance of railways, the lack of interest of the British members and the death of Muhammad Ali Pasha, the society was limited in its influence and activity in Egypt.
The former viceroy of the Ottoman Empire in Egypt, Muhammad Ali, died in 1848, and his position went to his grandson Abbas, who was not open to foreign influence.