Théophile-Jules Pelouze

1807 (Valognes, France) – 1867 (Paris)

Pelouze worked as laboratory assistant for Gay-Lussac, collaborated with Liebig in Germany, and was also a colleague of Bunsen’s. Berzelius was a good friend. Nobel, one of Pelouze’s students, took nitroglycerine (the disconcerting discovery of another of Pelouze’s students, Ascanio Sobrero) and developed and exploited it as a powerful yet safe explosive. Pelouze helped set up his friend Bernard’s marriage, and gave him curare-tipped arrows so he could experiment with the poison’s operation.