Crismer, Léon Maurice (1858-1944)

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Chemist and professor at the Royal Military Academy, born in Stavelot on 23 October 1858 and died in the same town on 25 June 1944.

Biography

Léon Crismer was born in Stavelot on 23 October 1858. He completed his secondary education at the College of Saint-Remacle in his native town. In 1876 he enrolled at the University of Liège to study pharmacy.[1] In 1879 he had ended his studies in Liège and became the laureate of a travel grant, which allowed him to perfect himself over the period of 1879 to 1883 by studying with Felix Hoppe Seyler in Strasbourg, with August Kekulé in Bonn and finally with Ostwald in Leipzig.
In 1882 he was appointed as assistent at the University of Liège to Lucien-Louis De Koninck for analytic chemistry, to Charles-Alfred Gilkinet for pharmaceutical chemistry and to Théodore Chandelon (1851-1921) for toxicology.[2]
In the evening he was manager of the Peters-Vaust University Pharmacy.[3]
In July 1893, he was appointed at the Royal Military Academy for general chemistry. He was the first to introduce concepts about the kinetic gas theory, osmotic pressure, the properties of electrolytes, reaction kinetics, etc. into the course of general chemistry.[4]
For a year and a half (1904-1905), he was able to teach the candidate and doctoral students at the ULB too. The Minister of Defence, however, forbade this cumulation and from then on he only taught at the Royal Military Academy.[5]
Three weeks after the German invasion of Belgium the Royal Military Academy, including Crismer's laboratorium, was closed by the occupying forces.[6] He applied as a volunteer and was appointed as forester of the Sonian Forest. However, he wanted to serve the Belgian government in Le Havre. After two failed attempts, he managed to cross the border into the Netherlands.[7] In november 1915 he arrived at the Sorbonne in Paris. Here he was appointed director of the laboratory of the Belgian army by the Belgian government. In this laboratory he collaborated with Jean Émile Charles Timmermans.[8] In 1919 he returned to Belgium. Because his laboratory at the Royal Military Academy was looted by the German occupying forces, he had to refurbish it. Which he did by devising a range of new instruments.[9]
At the 1921 conference of the International Union for Pure and Applied Chemistry in Rome, he submitted a report to establish a centre for the study of pure substances. From this, the International Bureau of Standards was born.
He was appointed corresponding member of the Royal Academy of Belgium on 1 June 1912, effective member on 15 december 1920 and president of the class of sciences in 1933.
In 1886 he became a member of the Société médicochirurgicale de Liège and published multiple articles in the members' magazine Annales. In 1888 he was one of the co-founders of the Gazette médicale de Liège.[10]
At Cristmer's instigation, it was decided to transform the Association belge des chimistes to the Société Chimique de Belgique in 1905. He also published in the Bulletin of this society.[11] He also was an honorary member of the Société de chimie industrielle de France.[12]
He passed away in his hometown on 25 june 1944.

Works

After a first important study on Perkin's reaction (1882), he published several studies on volumetric techniques and other analytical topics. From 1890 onwards, Crismer began to take an interest in the physico-chemical aspects of his research, including the mechanism of precipitation.
His research work focussed mainly on the critical solution temperature of hard to mix solutions. He applied this technique to the analysis of butter, fats, waxes, industrial oils, explosives, etc. (the use of the Crismer index is still applied for the control of butter). He furthermore determined with great precision the physico-chemical quantities of substances he had prepared or synthesised himself . [13]
He was an expert in the control of medicines and nutrition.
In addition, he also published Les frontières de la Physique et de la Chimie (1897) en Les sciences de la matière en Belgique (1905).

History of science
He also wrote biographies Walthère Spring (1912) and La loi de Berthollet (1922).[14]

Publications

A list with publications can be found in Timmermans, Jean, Leon Maurice Crismer, in Annuaire ARB, 1953, p. 241-246.

Bibliography


Notes

  1. ↑ Timmermans, Jean, Leon Maurice Crismer, in Biographie Nationale, vol. 31, kol. 236.
  2. ↑ Deelstra, Hendrik, De scheikunde aan de universiteiten en hogescholen, in Robert Halleux, Geert Vanpaemel, Jan Vandersmissen en Andrée Despy-Meyer (red.), Geschiedenis van de wetenschappen in België 1815-2000, Brussel: Dexia/La Renaissance du livre, 2001, vol. 1, p.177.
  3. ↑ Balduck, Paul, Leon Maurice Crismer, in Galerij van de Belgische Scheikundigen, KVCV sectie historiek, p. 1.
  4. ↑ Deelstra, Hendrik, De scheikunde aan de universiteiten en hogescholen, in Robert Halleux, Geert Vanpaemel, Jan Vandersmissen en Andrée Despy-Meyer (red.), Geschiedenis van de wetenschappen in België 1815-2000, Brussel: Dexia/La Renaissance du livre, 2001, vol. 1, p.177.
  5. ↑ Balduck, Paul, Leon Maurice Crismer, in Galerij van de Belgische Scheikundigen, KVCV sectie historiek, p. 3.
  6. ↑ Timmermans, Jean, Leon Maurice Crismer, in Annuaire ARB, 1953, p. 229.
  7. ↑ Balduck, Paul, Leon Maurice Crismer, in Galerij van de Belgische Scheikundigen, KVCV sectie historiek, p. 3.
  8. ↑ Timmermans, Jean, Leon Maurice Crismer, in Annuaire ARB, 1953, p. 229.
  9. ↑ Timmermans, Jean, Leon Maurice Crismer, in Annuaire ARB, jaargang 1953, p. 230.
  10. ↑ Balduck, Paul, Leon Maurice Crismer, in Galerij van de Belgische Scheikundigen, KVCV sectie historiek, p. 1.
  11. ↑ Timmermans, Jean, Leon Maurice Crismer, in Biographie Nationale, vol. 31, kol. 238.
  12. ↑ Timmermans, Jean, Leon Maurice Crismer, in Biographie Nationale, vol. 31, kol. 240.
  13. ↑ Deelstra, Hendrik, De scheikunde aan de universiteiten en hogescholen, in Robert Halleux, Geert Vanpaemel, Jan Vandersmissen en Andrée Despy-Meyer (red.), Geschiedenis van de wetenschappen in België 1815-2000, Brussel: Dexia/La Renaissance du livre, 2001, vol. 1, p.177.
  14. ↑ Balduck, Paul, Leon Maurice Crismer, in Galerij van de Belgische Scheikundigen, KVCV sectie historiek, p. 2.
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