Fremy, Edmond

Edmond Fremy, 1814-1894. Professor of chemistry at the Ecole Polytechnique and director of the Museum d Histoire Naturelle. He electrolyzed anhydrous calcium fluoride but could not collect the fluorine. He was present, however, when his former pupil, Henri Moissan, exhibited the new gas before a committee from the Academy of Sciences. Fremy wrote a monograph on the synthesis of rubies. See J. Chem. Educ., 8,1017-19 (June, 1931) for illustrations of his artificial rubies. 

Edmond Fremy, who had watched Louyet perform some of his experiments (33), tried to decompose anhydrous calcium fluoride electro-lytically, and did obtain calcium at die cathode, while a gas, which must have been fluorine, escaped at the anode (34). However, because of its tendency to add on to other substances and form ternary and quaternary compounds, Fremy failed in all his attempts to collect and identify the gas. When he allowed chlorine to act on a fluoride, he obtained no fluorine, but only a fluochloride when he used oxygen in place of chlorine, he obtained an oxyfluoride. 

Obliged to leave school at the age of eighteen years, he became an apprentice in the Bandry apothecary shop located at the intersection of Rue Pemelle and Rue Saint Denis in Paris. Here his ready knowledge of chemistry enabled him to save the life of a man who had swallowed arsenic in an attempt at suicide (21, 22). In 1872 Moissan decided to give up his position at the pharmacy in order to study under Edmond Fremy at the Musee d Histoire Naturelle. Here he not only made rapid progress in chemistry and pharmacy, but also became a connoisseur of art and litera-... 

This announcement was read to the Academy by Debray, for Moissan was not then a member, and the president appointed a committee consisting of MM. J.-H. Debray, Marcelin Berthelot, and Edmond Fremy to investigate the discovery. In the presence of these distinguished guests, the apparatus acted like a spoiled child. Moissan could not obtain as much as a bubble of fluorine. However, on the following day he used fresh materials and demonstrated his discovery to the entire satisfaction of... 

TABLE 1.2 Color Names Given by Edmond Fremy (Adapted from Brock3)... 

Edmond Fremy (Versailles, 29 February 1814-Paris, 3 February 1894) was at first assistant to Pelouze at the ficole Polytechnique, then professor there and in the Museum d Histoire Naturelle. He edited a large Encyclopedie... 

Edmond Fremy (1814-1894), a professor at the ficole Polytechnique in Paris, had watched some of Louyet s experiments in Brussels but was not frightened of his fate. In 1855 he tried to electrolyze a molten fluorspar. He got calcium at the cathode and a gas at the anode. It must have been fluorine, but at the high temperature of the melt it reacted so rapidly with the anode material that he was not able to capture it. An Eng-... 

Professor Fremy had a student, Henri Moissan (1852-1907). He solved the problem with the isolation of fluorine. As did so many eminent chemists in the history of discovery of the elements, he began his career with medical chemistry. At 18 he became an apprentice in a Paris pharmacy. He continued to study chemistry with Edmond Fremy at the Ecole Polytechnique, and he attended lectures by E. H. Sainte-Claire Deville. Most Ukely it was Professor Fremy who interested him in fluorine chemistry and aroused his curiosity. 

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