A reluctant chemist

François Auguste Victor Grignard was born on 6 May 1871, in the French port of Cherbourg. In 1898 Grignard began by gradually adding an ethereal solution of an alkyl halide to an equivalent amount of magnesium metal, submerged in anhydrous ether. The two substances combined to form an alkyl magnesium halide, later to become known as a ‘Grignard reagent’. With these precautions Grignard was able to prepare a wide variety of alkyl and aryl magnesium halides which remained stable in ethereal solution, while still retaining their potency. In 1912 Grignard shared the Nobel prize for chemistry with his fellow Frenchman Paul Sabatier.