Jean Aubert was a French engineer. In 1961 he used the idea of the German engineer from the last century to describe a pente d'eau, (English: water slope) which was a way of moving boats up the gradient of a canal without locks. The design consisted of a sloping channel through which a wedge of water on which the boat was floating could be pushed up an incline. This concept was used in both the Montech water slope and the Fonserannes water slopes.