Orleans, Duke

Louis of Bourbon, Prince of the Royal Blood of France assisted Frederick II promulgate the thirty-third degree of the Scottish Rite just before his death in May 1786. This may well have been Louis de Bourbon-Conde, Count of Clermont and Abbe of St Germain des Pres, who was Grand Master of French Masonry and died in 1771. ° However, if the establishment date of May 1786 is correct then the Louis Bourbon in question could have been the Count of Clermont s nephew, Louis Philippe-Joseph d Orleans, Duke of Chartres, Prince of the Royal Blood. He continued as Grand Master until his abdication in 1793. ... 

My old friend Mallorie, and the Duke of Orleans it was enough for them. They even wrote great works in their imprisonment. Is it enough for me Here I have all that a man s body requires food, shelter, clothes. The sun and the moon shed light for me, and I have my book of hours. I would I had Cicero or Boccaccio, or better yet Boethius in my hand, but perhaps to have them in my head and heart—as I do—is enough. 

Professor Darcet had advised the Duke on several occasions, and either Darcet or Berthollet may have recommended Leblanc to the Orleans house-... 

Although the new Duke of Orleans was the wealthiest man in Europe, he was wildly popular with the French public. The house of Orleans had been the liberal voice of France for 150 years. Cousins of the French kings, the dukes opposed the monarchy s absolute power and the Catholic Church s monopoly on education and supported the aspirations of the growing middle class. Radicals talked of making the new duke regent or even king. 

In the midst of the excitement, Leblanc told his former chemistry professor, Jean Darcet, the fabulous secret of his discovery. After running some tests and confirming Leblanc s discovery, Darcet recommended it to their patron, the Duke of Orleans. So far the process had worked only in laboratory crucibles, but Darcet declared optimistically, I the undersigned, professor of chemistry at the Royal College of France and at the Royal Academy of Sciences, etc., certify that. . . with this same process, it will be easy to establish a factory. As is often the case, reality proved to be a trifle more complicated. 

The Duke of Orleans was visiting London so in February 1790, Leblanc crossed the English Channel on his first trip outside France. Orleans agreed to invest the equivalent of 8 million in a start-up factory to exploit Leblanc s secret process. On February 12, in the London office of a French-speaking notary public named James Sutherland, Leblanc signed a contract with the Duke, his agent, and Professor Darcet s assistant. 

Eventually, one of Orleans sons compromised his father s precarious position and the duke was arrested. From his jail cell a few days before his execution, Orleans wrote his mistress Agnes de Buffon, The last letter received pierced my soul, for I learned that they have suspended the payment of the pensions and pledges of the people who were attached to me. I cannot tell you how I was affected by that. I put this sorrow among the biggest sorrows that I have suffered. Among his people was, of course, Nicolas Leblanc. 

During his last illness, Homberg s patience was that of a hero or a saint A few days before his death, said B. Le Bovier de Fontenelle m his eulogy, he took the liberty of writing to His Royal Highness the Duke of Orleans. .. to recommend to him all that he had most loved, the widow whom he was about to leave and the Academy of Sciences. His prayer for the Academy had more success than he would have dared to hope the prince has reserved for himself alone the direct management of this Company. He treats our sciences like his own domain, of which he is jealous (62). 

Department of Chemistry, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, USA Department of Chemistry, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA 70118, USA... 

M. de la Metherie s impractical process suggested to Nicolas Leblanc, about 1787, the proper soln. of the problem, and, after a favourable report had been made by J. P. J. d Arcet in 1790, a works was erected at St. Denis under the patronage of the Duke of Orleans. A sealed description of N. Leblanc s process was deposited with the notary on March 27, 1790 and a patent was granted to N. Leblanc on September 25, 1791. The essential features of the process therein described are not very different in principle from the process as used to-day ... 

St Sulpice benefited from one hundred years of sponsorship by the Princes of the Sanctuary, the Dukes of Orleans, Bourbon-Conde, Knights Templar Grand Masters and French Freemasonry Grand Masters. 

Though born to French nobility Berthollet did not have the financial advantages of Lavoisier. He chose the profession of physician and studied chemistry in connection with his studies in medicine. Perhaps through family connections he made the acquaintance of the Duke of Orleans, a widower, retired from the king s service, with a passion for the theater, music, and a certain Marquise de Montesson. The duke recommended Berthollet as private physician to Madame de Montesson, and this position provided Berthollet with the support to marry and the leisure time to do chemical experiments in the duke s personal laboratory. Berthollet repeated experiments of Lavoisier, Priestley, and Scheele, and that work won him election to the Academy of Sciences. He then worked with Fourcroy, de Morveau, and the Lavoisiers on the promotion and dissemination of Lavoisier s new system of chemistry. 

The successor of Le Fevre at the Jardin du Roi was Christopher or Chris-tofie Glaser, said to have been born in Basel, where he graduated in medicine. He was demonstrator to Vallot at the Jardin du Roi, then professor, and Apothecary to the King and the Duke of Orleans. He was involved in the... 

Claude Louis Berthollet (Tailloire, nr. Anneci (Annecey), Savoy, 9 December i748-Arcueil, nr. Paris, 6 November 1822) w as of French ancestry in Savoy. He studied medicine at the University of Turin, becoming M.D. in 1768. In 1772 he was befriended by his countryman Tronchin, physician to the Duke of Orleans and the latter made Berthollet physician to Mme. de Montesson. He studied chemistry under Macquer and Bucquet in Paris. He graduated M.D. in Paris in 1778 with a dissertation on wines. In 1780 he became a member of the Academy of Sciences. In 1784 he was an unsuccessful candidate for Macquer s chair at the Jardin du Roi, Fourcroy (who was a much better lecturer than Berthollet) being chosen it was said that Berthollet was unsuccessful because the Duke of Orleans would not pay court to Buffon. He became F.R.S. in 1789. ... 

There were two well-known glass burning mirrors. One made for Villette at Lyon, 30 in. diam., was purchased by Louis XIV for the Jardin du Roi. A second larger one of Villette was purchased by the Landgrave of Hesse-Cassel. The copper mirror made for Tschirnhaus in 1687 was purchased by the Duke of Orleans for the Paris Academy. ... 

On the publication of his work on steel in 1722 Reaumur was given a pension of 12,000 livres by the Duke of Orleans, but he made it over to the Academy for the perfection of the arts. He also introduced the manufacture of tinplate into France, showing that the iron sheets must be very clean and free from oxide before they are dipped in the bath of melted tin covered with tallow. 2 The nature of steel continued to be obscure till the work of Berthollet and Guyton de Morveau (see p, 530). In 1779 Jean Demeste, a Liege surgeon who made chemistry a hobby, thought that ordinary iron contains zinc, which is removed when it is converted into steel. ... 

The discovery was only part of the importance of Leblanc s contribution. He also commercialized the technology. Leblanc built his leading-edge technology facility at the La Franciade works in St. Denis, outside of Paris in 1791. Partners in the venture were Louis Philip 11, the Duke of Orleans (1743 - 1793), Michel Jean Jerome Dize (1764 - 1852) and Henri Shee. The small facility, measuring 10 X 15 meters, produced 0.25 tonnes per day of soda ash. Unfortunately for the inventor and his partners, France was soon in the turmoil of the Revolution, and the major investor was on the wrong side. By the order of the Committee of Public Safety, the facility was confiscated by the state in 1794, not because of Leblanc,... 

The stages of the evolution of industry are on a slippery, steep slope, requiring deep pockets of patient investors. An inventor needs an investor for his invention to become a venture. Leblanc was luckier than most entrepreneurs he already had a financial backer, the Duke of Orleans. The Duke had banked his scientific studies and the building of the small plant. Unfortunately, the Duke went down with the Revolution and took Leblanc s plant with him. The Duke was Leblanc s government investor. In venture projects, there is a m5niad of investors and pseudo-investors, and a few types of entrepreneurs ... 

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