René Jacques Lévy relaxing at his home in Paris.
René Jacques Lévy, was a French chemist, author of several patents exploited by the company Air Liquide.
Biography[]
René Jacques Lévy was born on July 7, 1875 in Nancy as the son of Nepthalie Lévy, an antique dealer, and his wife Henriette Dreyfus, his wife.
After graduating from the École Nationale supérieure des industries chimiques in 1896, René moved to Manchester in the year after, where he worked for the Clayton Aniline Company, of which his uncle Charles Dreyfus was the director. In 1902, together with André Helbronner, he invented a process that made it possible to produce liquid air industrially. The license is acquired by Air Liquide, after which he joined the company to work in the office in Boulogne-sur-Seine. He then joined the latter and worked in its offices in Boulogne-sur-Seine. Several of its patents are exploited by the company,,,,.
In 1903, he got married in Paris to Jeanne Royer with whom he had three daughters: Simone in 1904, Andrée in 1906 and Yvette in 1909.
After managing Air Liquide's English branch in London, he was sent to Canada in 1910 by the company's president, Paul Delorme, to create and manage a subsidiary in the suburbs of Montreal.
Titanic[]
In March 1912, he went to Paris to attend a family funeral and planned to return to Canada with the France on April 20, but he exchanged his ticket to return ten days earlier aboard the Titanic. He came aboard in Cherbourg and had a ticket for Second Class. In his cabin was also Jean-Noël Malachard and another passenger.
Jean-Noë Malchard and Rene spent time with the young Swiss lady Marie Jerwan during the Maiden Voyage. Rene made an ironic remark when passing the lifeboats on the top deck, stating that he'd rather go down with the ship than be sailing in one of them.
This would come true sooner than he could have realised, when Titanic struck an iceberg on the cold night of April 14. He died on April 15, 1912 in the sinking of the Titanic. It seemed that he was not worried about the danger and remained behind, but he and Malchard were willing to aid Marie Jerwan to get into a lifeboat. She would survive in what seemed to have been lifeboat 11, getting in from A-Deck.
His body was lost at sea.
The Royal Society of Chemistry honoured Mr. Lévy in 2012 on the occasion of the commemoration of the centenary of the sinking of the Titanic.