Hippolyte Mège-Mouriès (French: [ipɔlit mɛʒ muʁjɛs]; 24 October 1817 – 31 May 1880) was a French chemist and inventor known for creating margarine.

Early life

Hippolyte Mège was born on October 24, 1817, in Draguignan to Jean Joseph-Emmanuel Mège and his wife, Marie Marguerite Mouriès. His father was a primary school teacher, and around 1850, Mège added his mother's last name to his own to help people tell him apart from others with the same last name. However, legal papers usually still used "Mège." In 1838, Mège got a job as a pharmacist at the central pharmacy of the Hôtel-Dieu hospital in Paris.

Early work

Mège began sharing his discoveries in applied chemistry, including a version of the syphilis medicine Copahin improved with nitric acid to reduce harmful effects. He also received patents for effervescent tablets, methods used in paper making and sugar refining, and a process for tanning leather using egg yolks.

By 1852, Mège-Mouriès was studying the chemistry of foods. He added calcium phosphate and protein to chocolate in an effort to make it better for health.

Bread

By 1855, Mège-Mouriès was studying bread. He examined the color of bread and created a method that helped bakers make 14% more bread using the same amount of ingredients. This was a major achievement that caused international interest in France, Germany, and Britain. His work was discussed by members of the Royal Society of Arts in London. Eliza Acton wrote about his discoveries in detail in The English Bread-Book For Domestic Use (1857). Mège-Mouriès received two gold medals for his work. In 1861, Napoleon III awarded him the Légion d’Honneur for his work on bread-making.

Margarine

In the 1860s, Mège-Mouriès worked on processing fats. France had a shortage of butter, and Napoleon III offered a prize for creating a butter substitute. Mège-Mouriès experimented with a fatty acid called acide margarique, discovered by Michel Eugene Chevreul. By 1867, he was working at la Ferme Impériale de la Faisanderie, Napoleon III’s private farm in Vincennes near Paris.

Mège-Mouriès’s invention, called oleomargarine, was made by mixing processed beef tallow with skimmed milk. It formed small, white beads or pearls. A British patent application described the process as follows:

Although Mège-Mouriès did not fully understand the chemistry, his method was an important achievement. He successfully created a bland, neutral fat at low temperatures using water. He also found that mixing fat and milk gave the product a flavor similar to butter.

His process provided a low-cost but high-quality butter substitute for the working class and the French Navy. In 1870, Mège-Mouriès received a prize from the French government, led by Emperor Louis Napoleon III. He tried to start a factory in Poissy, but the business failed because of the Franco-Prussian War.

Mège-Mouriès applied for many patents for making margarine. A French patent (brevet) No. 86,480 for "production of certain animal-based fats" was filed on July 15, 1869, and granted on October 2, 1869, for fifteen years. He also received an English patent on July 17, 1869, and an Austrian patent on October 31, 1869. Patents were later obtained for Bavaria on April 8, 1873, and the United States on December 30, 1873.

These patents did not protect Mège-Mouriès in all countries. In 1869, the Netherlands removed its Patent Act of 1817. In 1883, the Paris Convention tried to standardize patent rights, but the Netherlands did not pass a new patent law until 1910. From 1869 to 1912, the Netherlands lacked patent agreements. Without clear patent laws, Mège-Mouriès could not claim or sell patent rights there. He could not apply for a patent, create a monopoly, or license others to use his invention in the Netherlands.

There are different accounts of how Mège-Mouriès’s process was shared with the Dutch. Butter suppliers like Jurgens and van den Bergh had long exported butter to other countries. They no longer had to respect margarine patents in other countries.

In 1871, Mège-Mouriès showed his invention to Dutch butter exporter Antoon Jurgens. He may have received a payment for sharing his knowledge. He may not have realized that his patent was not protected in the Netherlands. Alternatively, he may have accepted payment because he knew Dutch laws made it hard to control his invention. Some sources say he sold his patent rights to Jurgens, but Dutch laws at the time did not clearly define patent ownership or transfer. It is more accurate to say he shared his knowledge.

Without patent restrictions, Jurgens improved Mège-Mouriès’s ideas and began making and selling margarine. Another Dutch company, led by Simon van den Bergh, also started producing margarine. Both companies were in Oss, North Brabant. Jurgens’ company later became part of Unilever.

Mège-Mouriès earned little profit from his invention, as oleomargarine was not popular in France. Jurgens and van den Bergh built a large export industry, selling margarine to England and other countries. By the 1880s, there were at least 70 margarine factories in the Netherlands. In 1911, Jurgens exported 111,000 tons of margarine, and van den Bergh exported 112,000 tons.

Death

Hippolyte Mège-Mouriès died on May 31, 1880. He was buried near his wife and son in Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris.