Eugene Chevreul

Eugene Chevreul (1786 - 1889) is a known French chemist for his work on the fatty-acids and the Saponification and its contribution to the theory of the colors. This work was worth to him the Médaille Copley in 1857.

Its life

Eugene Chevreul was born the August 31st 1786 with Angers. Its certificate of birth, preserved in the register of civil statue of the city shows that his father, a grandfather and one of his uncles were all three surgeons.

At 17 years, in 1803, it enters to the laboratory of the chemist Nicolas Louis Vauquelin, of which he becomes then the assistant with the national Muséum of natural history of the Botanical garden. In 1813 it is named chemistry teacher with the Lycée Charlemagne, then directing of the Manufacture of the Goblins where it undertakes his research on contrasts of the colors and is interested in the dyeings like the Indigo. In 1826 he becomes member of the Academy of Science; the same year, he is elected foreign member of the Royal Society of London, of which he receives the Médaille Copley in 1857. He succeeds his Vauquelin Master as professor of Organic chemistry with the Natural history museum in 1830, and will direct the Museum seven times between 1836 and 1863 then, without interruption between 1864 and 1879. He gives up the direction in of it 1879 while preserving his pulpit.

Its centenary in 1886 is celebrated like national event, and a gold medal is struck on this occasion. Chevreul then accepted congratulations messages of many monarchs and Heads of States, of which the Reine Victoria. It starts the study of the effects of ageing on the human body little before its death which occurs at the 102 years age, the April 9th 1889 with Paris. It to him is made national funeral. In 1901 a statue is set up to him in the enclosure of the Natural history museum which it was used so much as years.

Its work

Its scientific work covers a broad field. It is especially known for its research on the animal fat contents.

In 1813 it insulates the margaric Acide, that it names thus according to the deposits in pearls (Greek: margarites) that it forms. It is thought whereas the acid margaric is one of the three fatty-acids which use the composition of the majority of the animal fat contents, the two others being the oleic acid and the stearic acid. In 1853, Heintz will discover that the acid margaric is not, in fact, that a composition of Stearic acid and Palmitic acid unknown hitherto.

Chevreul publishes in 1823 “Research chemical on the greasy substances of animal origin”, in which he explains the reaction Saponification and the composition of the Stéarine. It shows that the greasy Substance are made of a combination between the Glycérol and of the fatty-acids. It insulates the stearic acids and oleic, to which it gives their name. This work leads to the replacement of the Chandelle S by stearic candles being consumed better and in fact producing more light, less smoke and practically more unpleasant odors.

Chevreul was adverse keen of any form of Charlatanisme and in particular of the Spiritisme which flowered at the time ( Of the rod divinatoire, and the s3eance tables , 1864).

In the artistic field, Chevreul was made known painters for his Loi of the simultaneous contrast of the colors: director of the Manufacture of the Goblins, it is seized by the complaints of dyers who observe that certain dyeings do not give the Couleur S that one expects some. He discovers initially that certain dyeings are not chemically stable. But especially, it with the intuition that the most delicate problems are of not chemical but optical nature: in fact the pigments are in question, but let us tons them coloured which is in the vicinity. Chevreul then decides scientifically to treat the thing with bottom; in 1839, it makes appear its test law of the simultaneous contrast of the colors . It shows there that a color gives to a neighbouring color a complementary nuance in the tone: the complementary ones light mutually and the not-complementary colors appear” dirtied”, as when a yellow placed close to a green takes a nuance violet. The work of Chevreul was known of Eugene Delacroix and marked the artistic schools like the Impressionnisme, the Néo-impressionnisme of Georges Seurat and the Cubisme orphic.

Homages

It has a statue with the Botanical garden in Paris and in Angers
Its name is registered on the Eiffel Tower.

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