Emmanuel-Louis Gruner

Emmanuel-Louis Gruner (May 11th 1809 Ittigen, March 26th 1883 Beaucaire) is an engineer French polytechnician (X1828) French of Swiss origin. It was illustrated in the fields of the Métallurgie and the Géologie.

Biography

Childhood

Emmanuel-Louis Gruner was born in an large family comprising sixteen children. He was the fourth. It was born in Suisse in the locality in the district from Worblaufen to Ittigen beside Bern. By tradition, the family was turned towards sciences. Its mom went down from Albrecht von Haller (1708-1777) which was anatomist and Naturaliste; his/her large paternal father is quoted, inter alia by Buffon, for his work on the glaciers….

His/her mother, Julie de Jenner gave him an religious education which influenced it all its life. She died prematurely whereas it had twenty and one years. His/her father was called Emmanuel Gruner known as of Wors-Lauffen. He followed the occupation of trader.

Between nine and sixteen years, it went to school to Gottsadt in an institution directed by Pasteur Zehender.

Its studies

It goes then to the university of Geneva during two years until in 1827. It goes in 1828 to Paris to prepare the entrance examination to the polytechnic school. It makes a success of the entrance examination of them this same year. It is classified ninth with resulting from the course of the school on a total of one hundred twenty two students. He asked his French naturalization to enter to the 3Ecole Nationale Sup3erieure of the mines of Paris (promotion of 1830). He was major of his promotion and was even exempted courses of third year. He thus integrated the Corps of the Mines.

The career

After one period of voyage in Germany and Europe Central, he prefers to ask in 1834 rather a station Saint-Etienne than to remain in laboratory. Saint-Etienne was then one of the French centers most important for the extraction of the coal and for the iron and steel industry. It carried out an important geological exploration of the coal basins of the department of the Loire.

In 1835 he becomes chemistry teacher with the 3Ecole Nationale Sup3erieure of the mines of Saint-Etienne. It preserved this station until in 1847. It was then named chief engineer of the mines inspectorate with Poitiers. It led similar geological investigations to those which it had carried out in the Loire in the coal basins of the Creuse.

In 1852, it goes back to Saint-Etienne where it has just been appointed principal of the mines. It occupies this station until in 1858. It is then named with the metallurgy pulpit of the school of the mines of Paris. It works within this school until in 1872. Then, it occupied various prestigious stations in the French administration of the mines until its retirement in 1879.

He dies, in Beaucaire on March 26th, 1883 of a lung disease.

Its work

Geology

It charged with its had sometimes happened in 1834 to Saint-Etienne to establish the geological map of the department of the Loire. It was thus brought to do many work of geological exploration in this area. Taking into account the economic importance of coal for the area, a big part of its work referred to the carboniferous formations. It published many articles in particular in the Annales of the mines but also in the Annales of the Company of agriculture, sciences and arts of Lyon or the Bulletin of the geological Company of France . It also published, of many results of its research on the carboniferous formations of the Hollow one.

In 1859, it published a work called geological description of the Loire . It supplemented in 1860 a second volume centered on the carboniferous formations which was published accompanied by an atlas only in 1882 after a recasting.

Metallurgy

Same manner that for geology, Gruner published a great number of article in the `' Yearly of the mines''. This work concerned the processes as well as on the chemistry of several ores. Are name was given besides to a natural Silicate of Fer and Magnésium of the group of amphiboles: the Grunérite of composition: (Fe, Mg) ₇, Si₈0₂₂ which he discovered in a particular iron ore, the collobriérite, solid mass of the Moors.

It also establishes a classification of the quality of coal based on the volatile content and the results of Coke|coking:

*I. coal dries with long flame 40 to volatile matter 45%

*II. bituminous coal with long flame 32 to volatile matter 40%

*III. bituminous coal itself 26 to 32%

*IV. bituminous coal with short flame 18 to 26%

*V. lean coal 10 to 18%

*VI. coal anthracite 8 to 10%

These contributions had often as an aim to help the industrialists to use the new processes or iron and steel products which very developed at high speed at that time Industrial revolution.

It did an important work on the blast furnaces in order to develop and to optimize the production of cast iron. On a purely anecdotic basis one can note the existence of the Gruner classification which it establishes to classify the blast furnaces according to the report/ratio height (H) on diameter of the belly (v):

* HF squat (h/v ≤ 3)

* HF ordinary (h/v ≃ 3,5)

* HF slim (h/v ≥ 4)

It estimated that the slim blast furnaces gave better results with regard to the regularity and the consumption of fuel.

There exists an index of Gruner which quantifies the voluminal report/ratio CO/CO₂ at exit of a blast furnace. It quantifies the good performance of it. Gruner estimated that the best report/ratio was of 0,675. This index is currently used little.

It showed impossibility of correctly treating pig iron and cast iron phosphorous with the Bessemer process It had the intuition of the solution which was developed successfully a few years later by Thomas and Gilchrist to treat pig iron and cast iron phosphorous: “Perhaps could one have recourse to dolomite, the double magnesia and lime carbonate? Dolomite, cooked at high temperature, especially if it contained enough clay to sinter itself a little, would resist better than pure lime the action of the humid air. One could thus prepare bricks which certainly would have to render great service. ” (Gruner, treaty of metallurgy, divide into volumes first, page 200-201).

In addition to its very many reports published in the Yearly of the mines concerning the processes iron and steel of obtaining the cast iron of the Steel, it published several works:

* State present of the metallurgy of iron in England (with Charles-Romain Lan), Dunod editor 1862

* Treated metallurgy, Dunod editor.

* Volume first: metallurgical agent and apparatuses, principle of combustion (1875)

* Volume second: heating and fusion, netting, refining and reduction (1878)

The volume second is incomplete. The author died before to have completed it

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