Auguste Victor Louis Verneuil
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Auguste Victor Louis Verneuil (1856-1913) was a French chemist best known for inventing the first commercially viable process for the manufacture of synthetic gemstones. In 1902 he discovered the "flame fusion" process, today called the Verneuil Process, which remains in use today as an inexpensive means of making artificial corundum, or rubies.
[edit] Biography
Verneuil was born in Dunkirk, France, in 1856. He was son of a watchmaker-mechanic. When he was 17, he applied to Dr. Edmond Fremy who accepted him as a laboratory assistant. He received his bachelor degree in 1875, his master in 1880 and his PhD in 1886. In 1892 he became a professor of applied chemistry in the organic chemistry section of the Museum of Natural History in Paris, where he worked for 13 years. He studies methods to synthesize ruby, the chemistry of selenium, the phosphorescence of zinc blende, the chemistry of rare earth elements, the purification of glycerine and the production of high refractive index glass. He also though chemistry at various high schools and colleges. He begun working on the synthesis of rubies by flame fusion as far back as 1886 and solved all the problems within six years, depositing his sealed notes at the Paris Academy of Science in 1891 and 1892 but only announced his discovery in 1902.
