Georges Claude was born on September 24, 1870, and died on May 23, 1960. He was a French engineer and inventor. He is known for his early work in making air into liquid for industrial use, for creating and introducing neon lighting to the public, and for conducting a large experiment to produce energy by bringing cold seawater from the ocean depths to the surface. Some people have called him "the Edison of France." A method for making ammonia, called the Claude process, was named after him.

During World War II, Claude worked with the German forces occupying France. Because of this, he was arrested in 1945 and lost his honors.

Early life and career

Georges Claude was born on September 24, 1870, in Paris, France, during the city's siege by German forces. He studied at the École supérieure de physique et de chimie industrielles de la ville de Paris (ESPCI). After completing his studies, he worked as an electrical inspector in a cable factory and as a laboratory manager in an electric works. He founded and edited a magazine called L'Étincelle Électrique (The Electric Spark). His significant friendship with Jacques-Arsène d'Arsonval likely began during this time. Around 1896, Claude discovered the danger of storing bottled acetylene, a gas used for lighting at the time. Acetylene is explosive when kept under pressure. Claude demonstrated that acetylene dissolves well in acetone, which is equivalent to storing it under 25 atmospheres of pressure. This discovery reduced the risk of handling the gas.

Liquefaction of air

In 1902, Claude created a method now called the Claude system for turning air into liquid. This system allowed the production of large amounts of liquid nitrogen, oxygen, and argon. Claude's method competed well with an earlier system developed by Carl von Linde in 1895. Claude and businessman Paul Delorme started a company named Air Liquide (L'Air Liquide), which is now a large company based in Paris, France.

Neon lighting

Inspired by Geissler tubes and Daniel McFarlan Moore's invention of a nitrogen-based light (the "Moore tube"), Claude developed neon tube lighting to use the neon gas produced as a byproduct of his air liquefaction business. These were "glow discharge" tubes that produce light when an electric current passes through the rarefied gas inside the tube. Claude first publicly displayed a large neon light at the Paris Motor Show (Salon de l'Automobile et du Cycle) from 3 to 18 December 1910. He filed his first patent for these technologies in France on 7 March 1910. In 1913, Claude wrote that two key inventions made neon lighting practical. First, he developed methods to purify neon (or other inert gases like argon) inside completely sealed glass tubes, which set neon lighting apart from Moore tubes, which used devices to replenish nitrogen or carbon dioxide. Second, he designed a way to reduce electrode damage caused by "sputtering," the process by which electrodes wear down when transferring electric current to the glowing gases inside the sign.

Today, the terms "neon light" and "neon sign" are often used to describe electrical lighting that uses sealed glass tubes filled with gases such as argon, mercury vapor, or neon. In 1915, a U.S. patent was granted to Claude for his electrode design, which became the foundation for his company's monopoly in the United States until the early 1930s.

Georges Claude and the French company he founded are often credited with introducing neon signs to the United States by selling two to Earle C. Anthony, owner of Packard car dealerships in San Francisco and Los Angeles in 1923. However, no clear evidence supports this claim. Photographs from 1923 to 1925 show a neon sign in Los Angeles, but not until 1925. A photo from 1924 may show a neon Packard sign at Anthony's San Francisco dealership, but this is not certain. By 1924, Claude's company (Claude Neon) had established subsidiaries or licensed patents in the United States, including on the West Coast. Though neon signage spread slowly, by the 1930s it became common across the country, eventually becoming the dominant form of lit signage for several decades.

Ocean thermal energy conversion

Claude's teacher and close friend was Jacques-Arsène d'Arsonval, who created the idea called "Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion," or OTEC. Claude was the first person to build early models of this technology. He built his first model in Cuba in 1930. The system made 22 kilowatts of electricity using a type of turbine that works with low pressure.

In 1935, Claude built another model, this time on a large ship that was anchored near the coast of Brazil. Storms and rough ocean conditions damaged both models before they could produce more electricity than they used. Net power is the electricity produced after using some of it to run the system itself.

Wartime collaboration and post-war imprisonment

As a young engineer, Claude did not support democratic rule. In 1933, he joined the Action Française, a group that wanted to bring back a monarchy in France. He was a close friend of Charles Maurras, a leader of the monarchist movement. After France was defeated by Germany in 1940 and northern France was occupied by Germany, the Vichy regime was established in the south. During this time, Claude publicly supported France’s cooperation with Germany. He wrote several pamphlets that encouraged collaboration. He was part of a special committee for the Groupe Collaboration, which was formed in September 1940. In 1941, the Vichy regime named him a member of the Conseil National Consultatif.

After Allied forces freed France in 1944, Claude was arrested on December 2, 1944, for working with the Axis powers. He was removed from the French Academy of Sciences. In 1945, he was found guilty of spreading propaganda that supported collaboration but was not convicted of helping design the V-1 flying bomb. He was sentenced to life in prison and served his time. In 1950, he was released from prison after his research on ocean thermal energy conversion was recognized.

Selected bibliography

Claude wrote several widely read but not extremely popular descriptions of his research, along with wartime writings and a personal account of his life.

• L'Électricité à la portée de tout le monde. Vve C. Dunod. 1901. Electricity Made Accessible to Everyone was his first book. It became very popular, won the Prix Hébert from the Academy of Sciences, and was translated into German. Christine Blondel noted that the book sold more than 60,000 copies, nearly twice as many as Jean Perrin’s well-known book, Les atomes.
• L'air liquide, sa production, ses propriétés, ses applications. Préface de d'Arsonval. Vve. C. Dunod. 1903. Liquid Air: Its Production, Its Properties, and Its Applications was published shortly after the creation of Air Liquide.
• Liquid air, oxygen, nitrogen. Introduction by d'Arsonval. P. Blakiston's Son & Co. 1913. This English version was translated by Henry E. P. Cottrell from the French book Air liquide, oxygène, azote. Préface de d'Arsonval. H. Dunod et E. Pinat. 1909.
• Sur l'utilisation de l'énergie thermique des mers. Institut Océanographique. 1926. Bulletin, No. 486. On the Utilization of the Thermal Energy of the Seas.
• Ma bataille contre la vie chère. A. Fayard. 1939. My Battle Against the High Cost of Living. The phrase la vie chère means "expensive living" and was a major concern in France during the years between 1919 and 1939.
• Ma vie et mes inventions. Plon. 1957. My Life and My Inventions, Claude’s autobiography, was published a few years before his death in 1960.