Full name: Dr Alphonse Rene Le Mire de Normandy. Born Rouen, France. He completed a medical course but then devoted himself to chemistry. Came to England in the late 1830s/early 1840s, initially living in Dalston. Lived Judd Street 1850-9.
An analytical chemist and inventor, he took out patents for ‘hard’ soap and indelible ink, as well as one for a desalination technique.
Much of our information comes from documentation kindly provided by the Marchmont Association, who write "For some years he had a considerable practice as a consulting and analytical chemist, and in 1855 and 1856 he gave some startling evidence before a committee of the House of Commons on the adulteration of food with reference to the use of alum in the manufacture of bread. He was elected a fellow of the Chemical Society on 20th May 1854. He died at Odin Lodge, Clapham Park, London, on 10th May 1864."
We discovered that when he registered a patent in March 1860 he gave his address as "Odin Lodge, King's Road, Clapham Park". That road has since been renamed King's Avenue. However it's a long road and we cannot discover where Odin Lodge was/is.
Information published at Royal Society of Chemistry adds: "... Alphonse René le Mire (the ‘Normandy’ was added later)."
Buried Norwood Cemetery. From their 2017 newsletter : "Dr Normandy had patented an apparatus for distilling sea water in order to produce potable water in 1851, the year of the Great Exhibition. The process was very successful because it required minimal heat, and the product contained dissolved air, making it pleasant to drink. It was also valuable in producing fresh water for boiler feed. The process was of great economic importance as shipping lines developed worldwide in the 19th & 20th centuries. It is still important today in many parts of the world as well as onboard ship: desalination is now a $15–20 billion a year industry."
Normandy's technical process of sea water desalination is still in use today.
