About this Abstract |
Meeting |
MS&T23: Materials Science & Technology
|
Symposium
|
History of Materials Science and Engineering
|
Presentation Title |
The Burgeoning of Materials Science and Engineering in France 1865 - 1914 |
Author(s) |
Yves Charles Bienvenu, Olivier Hardouin Duparc |
On-Site Speaker (Planned) |
Olivier Hardouin Duparc |
Abstract Scope |
The period/place saw the birth of the Martin-Siemens, Hall-Heroult and electric arc furnace steelmaking (Heroult again) processes for a cheaper production of aluminium and an increased capacity to produce quality steels from scraps. The Ecole des Mines and more precisely Henry Le Chatelier inspired Martin and also Heroult (who left the school after one year, joined his father's shop where he could find a current generator for the electrolytic production of aluminium from a molten bath. Materials processing was a family affair for Le Chatelier and Martin (3 and 2 generations respectively) while Hall and Heroult are called the "aluminium twins". To facilitate the development of those processes Le Chatelier invented metallographic and pyrometry tools. The period also saw significant contributions of women to materials processing and science. The presentation will aim at analysing the reasons for this burgeonning, the common points and differences among the four inventors mentionned above |