Henry Louis Le Chatelier

Henry Louis Le Chatelier ( born October 8, 1850 in Paris, † June 17, 1936 in Miribel- les- ECHELLES, Isère ) was a French chemist, metallurgist and physicist who made ​​important contributions to thermodynamics.

Le Chatelier was the son of mining engineer and entrepreneur Louis Le Chatelier. He was interested in already during school hours in chemistry, metallurgy and mathematics. After finishing school he studied at the École Polytechnique in 1869 and at the École National Superieure des Mines and additionally attended chemistry lectures. After successfully completing his studies he taught 1878-1925 Chemistry, successively at the École des Mines, at the Collège de France and the Sorbonne. In 1907 he was promoted to Inspector General of the Ecole des Mines.

In 1888, he formulated a thermodynamic principle which is now called the principle of least constraint or Le Chatelier -Braun principle. According to this principle, attempts a system that is in equilibrium, acting to compensate for external pressures ( change of state variables ) via an adaptation of the other state quantities. Le Chatelier also dealt with the specific heat capacity of gases at high temperatures and devised a thermoelectric pyrometer, with which one could measure temperatures below the range of a mercury thermometer.

Le Chatelier sat down for a wider application of chemistry in the French industry a; his research paid off for products such as ammonia, cement, steel and ceramic. Among his works is De la méthode among others dans les sciences EXPERIMENTALES (1936). Le Chatelier was a member of numerous scientific institutions and received various awards.