Everything about Michel Eug Ne Chevreul totally explained
Michel Eugène Chevreul (
August 31,
1786 –
April 9,
1889) was an important
French chemist whose work with
fatty acids led to early applications in the fields of art and science. He is credited with discovering
margarine and designing an early form of
soap made from animal fats and salt. He also lived to 102 and was a pioneer in the field of
gerontology.
He was born in
Angers, where his father was a
physician. His birth certificate kept in the registry book of the town bears the signature of his father, grandfather and a great-uncle, all of whom were surgeons.
At about the age of seventeen he went to
Paris and entered
LN Vauquelin's chemical laboratory, afterwards becoming his assistant at the
Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle in the
Jardin des Plantes. In 1813 he was appointed professor of chemistry at the Lycée Charlemagne, and subsequently undertook the directorship of the
Gobelins tapestry works, where he carried out his researches on colour contrasts (
De la loi du contraste simultané des couleurs, 1839; the 1854 English translation is titled
The Principles of Harmony and Contrast of Colors). In 1826 he became a member of the Academy of Sciences, and in the same year was elected a foreign member of the
Royal Society of
London, whose
Copley Medal he was awarded in 1857.
He succeeded his master, Vauquelin, as professor of
organic chemistry at the natural history museum in 1830, and thirty-three years later assumed its directorship also; this he relinquished in 1879, though he still retained his professorship. A gold medal was minted for the occasion of Chevreul's
100th birthday in 1886, and it was celebrated as a national event. Chevreul received letters of commendation from many heads of state and monarchs, including
Queen Victoria. He had a series of recorded meetings with
Felix Nadar, with Nadar's son
Paul taking photographs, making up the first photo-interview in history. Overall, it was a fitting tribute to a man who lived through the entire
French Revolution and lived to see the unveiling of the
Eiffel tower.
Ironically, Chevreul began to study the effects of ageing on the human body shortly before his death at the grand
age of 102 which occurred in
Paris on
9 April 1889. He was honoured with a public funeral. In 1901 a statue was erected to his memory in the museum with which he was connected for so many years.
His scientific work covered a wide range, but his name is best known for the classical researches he carried out on animal fats, published in 1823 (
Recherches sur les corps gras d'origine animale). These enabled him to elucidate the true nature of soap; he was also able to discover the composition of
stearin, a white substance found in the solid parts of most animal and vegetable fats, and
olein, the liquid part of any fat, and to isolate stearic and oleic acids, the names of which were invented by him. This work led to important improvements in the processes of candle-manufacture.
Chevreul was a determined enemy of charlatanism in every form, and a complete
sceptic as to the "scientific" psychical research or
spiritualism which had begun in his time (see his
De La baguette divinatoire, et des tables tournantes, 1864).
Chevreul was also influential in the world of art. After being named director of the dye works at the Gobelins Tapestry Works in Paris, he received many complaints about the dyes being used there. In particular, the blacks appeared different when used next to blues. He determined that the yarn's perceived color was influenced by other surrounding yarns. This led to a concept known as simultaneous contrast.
Chevreul's work addressed painting with the aim of reproducing nature as closely as possible, by separating effects of light and
chiaroscuro, which the artist must repeat, from those of color contrast, which would apply to the paint's own color and so be exaggerated. Yet the color principle subsequently had a great influence on the birth of
Neo-Impressionism and
Orphism.
Works
- De la loi du contraste simultané des couleurs et de l'assortiment des objets colorés (1839), translated into English by Charles Martel as The principles of harmony and contrast of colours (1854) (sample pages from third edition
), ISBN 0887400906
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