Erneste Gaston Joseph Solvay (1838 - 1922)

Born 16 Apr 1838 in Rebecq-Rognon, Brabant, Belgique

Husband of Pauline Adèle Winderinckx — married 17 Sep 1863 in Ixelles, Brussels, Belgium

Died 26 May 1922 at age 84 in Ixelles, Bruxelles, Belgique

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Biography

Erneste Solvay is Notable.

Ernest was born in 1838. He passed away in 1922. He was a Belgian chemist, industrialist and philanthropist. Founder of the chemical company Solvay & Cie (now Solvay S.A.).

Ernest Solvay became passionately interested in physics, chemistry and natural history at an early age. He was prevented from attending university by illness, and at the age of 21 started work in the gas factory owned by his uncle.

In 1861, he, along with his brother Alfred Solvay, developed the ammonia-soda process (also known as the Solvay process after its originators) for the manufacturing of soda ash (anhydrous sodium carbonate) from brine (as a source of sodium chloride) and limestone (as a source of calcium carbonate).

The exploitation of his patents brought Solvay considerable wealth, which he used for philanthropic purposes. In 1903, he founded the Solvay Business School which is also part of the Free University of Brussels. In 1911, he began a series of important conferences in physics, known as the Solvay Conferences, whose participants included Max Planck, Ernest Rutherford, Maria Skłodowska-Curie, Henri Poincaré, and (then only 32 years old) Albert Einstein. A later conference would include Niels Bohr, Werner Heisenberg, Max Born, and Erwin Schrödinger.

Ernest Solvay on Wikipedia

Sources

• https://focusonbelgium.be/en/Do%20you%20know%20these%20Belgians/ernest-solvay-chemist-and-great-benefactor-his-time
• State Archives in Belgium, Province du Brabant wallon, Rebecq-Rognon, Etat civil: actes de naissances, 1823-1860, image 354 (https://search.arch.be/en/zoeken-naar-archieven/zoekresultaat/inventaris/rabscan/eadid/BE-A0542_708752_706720_FRE/inventarisnr/IAcmis3103/level/file/scan-index/10/foto/542_9999_999_1080940_000_A_8002)
• Wikipedia contributors, "Ernest Solvay," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ernest_Solvay&oldid=750558740 (accessed August 19, 2018).
• "United States, GenealogyBank Historical Newspaper Obituaries, 1815-2011", database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:Q59Q-3855 : 18 July 2020), Ernest Solvay, 1922.
• "England and Wales, National Index of Wills and Administrations, 1858-1957," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QPLZ-9VBK : 17 September 2018), Ernest Gaston Joseph Solvay, 16 May 1925; citing Probate, Isle of Wight, England, United Kingdom, Her Majesty's Stationery Office, Great Britain.; FHL microfilm .
• https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/5891/ernest-solvay

See also:

• Wikidata: Item Q311665