Background
Charles Bernard Desormes was born on June 3, 1777 in Dijon, France.
Académie des Sciences.
The Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities.
École Polytechnique.
Académie des Sciences.
The Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities.
chemist physicist politician scientist
Charles Bernard Desormes was born on June 3, 1777 in Dijon, France.
Desormes entered the École Polytechnique at its founding in 1794.
Desormes remained at the École Polytechnique after his studies were completed, becoming répétiteur in chemistry under Guyton de Morveau, a position he held until 1804. From this period dates his relationship with Nicolas Clément, his compatriot who later became his scientific collaborator, industrial associate, son-in-law, and friend. Desormes left Guyton de Morveau only in order to devote himself to the alum factory that he established at Verberie in association with Clément and Joseph Montgolfier.
From 1819, and especially after 1830, Desormes gradually turned away from science in order to devote his time to politics. He was elected conseiller général of the department of Oise in 1830, but was defeated as an opposition candidate for parliament in June 1834. He then founded the Revue de l’Oise, which became the Progrès de l’Oise. Following two further defeats in November 1837 and in July 1842 (shortly after the death of Clément), Desormes was finally elected to the Constituent Assembly on April 23, 1848. He sat with the republicans and participated in the departmental and communal Committee of Administration.
Besides his works in collaboration with Clément, Desormes’s scientific oeuvre is slight, consisting of three memoirs dating from 1801 to 1804, the period immediately after the appearance of Volta’s pile.
On July 5, 1819 Desormes was elected a corresponding member of the Académie des Sciences. He was also a member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities.
