Ernest Solvay; The company founder

Ernest Solvay was born in 1838, the son of a quarry master from Rebecq-Rognon in Belgium. From a very young age he exhibited a passion for physics, chemistry and natural history, and at the age of 23 he and his brother Alfred developed a new process for the industrial production of sodium carbonate. They founded the company Solvay & Cie on December 24, 1863, flirting with bankruptcy on several occasions during the nearly 10 years it took them to perfect the process. But in the end they succeeded, thanks both to their perseverance and to the active support of their friends and family. From 1870 to 1880, Solvay promoted the global expansion of the company. Factories were set up in Belgium, France, England, Germany, Russia and the United States. Ernest Solvay oversaw the organization and development of this industrial empire with remarkable insight. For example, he was one of the first to make industrial use of electrolysis.

Ernest Solvay was also a man of progressive social ideals, which he implemented within his factories. He established before legal obligations a social security system, pensions for the workers in 1878, an 8-hour workday in 1897, and paid vacations in 1913. After becoming wealthy, he looked to society at large, and founded several scientific, philanthropic, and charitable foundations, including the Institutes of Physiology (1895) and of Sociology (1901), as well as the prestigious School of Business (1903) which still bears his name.

His overriding passion for science was again expressed in 1911 when he organized a meeting in Brussels of most of the famous physicists and chemists of the time. Participants included Marie Curie, Albert Einstein, Max Planck, Ernest Rutherford, Raymond Poincaré and the Duke Louis de Broglie. This was the birth of the Solvay international physics council, which has met 20 times between 1911 and 1991, assembling some of the most brilliant scientists in the world. Despite Ernest Solvay's consistently fragile health, he lived a full and intense life until the age of 83. The contributions he made to society during his lifetime, and the industrial and social legacy he left behind, are both impressive and an inspiration to many.