Jean-Baptiste Guimet

Who was Jean-Baptiste Guimet?

Jean-Baptiste Guimet, French industrial chemist, was born at Voiron, Isère.

He studied at the École Polytechnique in Paris, and in 1817 entered the Administration des Poudres et Salpêtres. In 1828 he was awarded the prize offered by the Société d’encouragement pour l’industrie nationale for a 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 Fleurieu-sur-Saône.

His son Émile Étienne Guimet succeeded him in the direction of the factory.