Background
Jean-Baptiste Guimet was born at Voiron, Isère on the 20th of July 1795.
Jean-Baptiste Guimet was born at Voiron, Isère on the 20th of July 1795.
He studied at the Ecole Polytechnique in Paris.
In 1817 Guimet entered the Administration des Poudres et Salpêtres. He developed the process of making artificial ultramarine with all the properties of the substance prepared from lapis lazuli; and six years later he resigned his official position in order to devote himself to the commercial production of that material, a factory for which he established at Fleurieux sur Saône. He died on the 8th of April 1871.
His son Émile Étienne Guimet, born at Lyons on the 26th of June 1836, succeeded him in the direction of the factory, and founded the Musée Guimet, which was first located at Lyons in 1879 and was handed over to the state and transferred to Paris in 1885.
