Ernest Solvay

See also: Solvay

Ernest Solvay (Rebecq-Kidney the April 16th 1838 - Ixelles the May 26th 1922) is a Chimiste and a Belgian industrialist considered by a group of people of the academic, scientific and cultural world like one of the Hundred Wallons of the century.

Impassioned very early for physics, chemistry and the natural history, Ernest will however be blocked in its search of knowledge when a serious disease prevents it from entering to the University. Autodidact, it starts to work at 21 years in the gas works of his uncle while bringing many improvements there, in particular the recovery of ammonia. During an experiment, he discovers a revolutionary process of manufacture of soda (mixture of sodium chloride, limestone and ammonia). Conscious of the party which it can draw from this discovery, the young man makes patent first once in 1861 an economic method of his invention to manufacture too rare soda carbonate in a natural state, a process with the Ammoniac which allows the industrial production of the Sodium carbonate (Na₂ CO₃), known since then under the name of Procédé Solvay. The sodium carbonate is an essential compound in many industrial applications, in particular the manufacture of glass, the metallurgy and detergency.

It is with Couillet in 1863, where it installs its first factory, that Ernest Solvay throws with his/her Alfred brother and their associate, the lawyer Eudore Pirmez, the bases of what was going to become an empire of chemistry. After a difficult departure, the Solvay Company & Co take an international dimension gradually and become one of the giants of chemical industry. From 200 kg in 1865, the day laborer production passes to 3 tons in 1867. In 1900,95% of the worldwide production of soda comes from the “Solvay process”. Its Solvay company & Co become, at the end of the XIXe century, a world reference of chemical industry.

Its process requires limestone, coal and sodium chloride. Quite naturally, Solvay founds factories where it meets these materials. In Lorraine French initially, the Solvay patent is then exploited in England, in Germany, in the United States, in Austria. It is a whole industrial and commercial empire which is created, innovator also in his methods: close cooperation enters the various factories, strict controls at each stage of manufacture. He is founder of the chemical company and pharmaceutical Solvay SA and of the Business school Solvay (fame Solvay Business School in 2003) of the Universit3e libre de Bruxelles.

Large captain of industry, it also takes not very common social initiatives for the time while being the precursor of the social legislation in his factories, where it integrated a security system social: a pension for the workers as of 1899, the limitation of the working time with the 8 hours day in 1908, the introduction of paid vacations in 1913, professional recycling…

It thus draws contours of a social structure founded on the organization of the job market, the equal opportunity and the implication of the State. Politically committed, Ernest Solvay continues its combat for the rights of the workers to the Senate (of 1892 to 1894 and 1897 to 1900) before being appointed minister of state in 1918. It also creates many social works like, in 1914, the National committee of Help and Food which plays a considerable part in the supply of Belgium during the Great War.

He is the principal patron of the Universit3e libre de Bruxelles (ULB) where he founds the Institut of Physiology (1895), the Institut of Sociology (1894) and the Business school Solvay (1903). Large promoter of sciences, his passion still expresses himself through the creation of the International institute for Physics and Chemistry in Brussels (1894). He creates with the support of various personalities of the time, scientists and bankers, a scientific city intended to shelter these various institutes, the buildings, built by architects of reputation, always visible, are disseminated in the park Léopold. It is there that will be held every 3 years the famous Conseils Solvay. During one week, the Council of a score of specialists discuss between them in a current problem carefully prepared by eminent rapporteurs. The first edition, in 1911, will join together eleven Nobel Prize of which in particular Marie Curie, Albert Einstein, Paul Langevin, max Planck, Ernest Rutherford, Henri Poincaré and the Duke Louis de Broglie.

Today, the Solvay group occupies about 30.000 people and account more than 400 establishments in 50 countries.

Ernest Solvay was convinced that the happiness of the men can come only from the diffusion of the knowledge.

It was selected like one of the Hundred Walloons of the century, by the Institut Jules Destrée, in 1995.

External bond

Ernest Solvay, industrialist and minister of state

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