The company was founded in 1862 by Frederic Barbier and Stanislas Fenestre as Barbier and Fenestre. It was renamed Barbier et Cie in 1887 and Barbier and Bénard in 1889. It became Barbier, Benard, et Turenne early in the 20th century, and became a public limited company in 1919.École des Ponts ParisTech, enpc.fr website, {pdf} /web-BBT.pdf "Barbier Benard Turenne (BBT), historical note".Thobie, Jacques. Administration General beacons of the Ottoman Empire and the Collas and Michel society, 1860-1960 (L'Harmattan, 2004), p. 12.
