September 24, 1870 - Georges Claude
A celebrated inventor whose neon lighting transformed the visual landscape of modern cities, Claude presents a case study in how scientific prestige offered no moral insulation against political catastrophe. His active collaboration with Nazi occupiers in France during World War II stands in stark contrast to decades of celebrated innovation, and the postwar stripping of his honors reflected a judgment by his own country on the uses to which his influence had been put.
From Wikipedia
Georges Claude (24 September 1870 – 23 May 1960) was a French engineer and inventor. He is noted for his early work on the industrial liquefaction of air, for the invention and commercialization of neon lighting, and for a large experiment on generating energy by pumping cold seawater up from the depths. He has been considered by some to be "the Edison of France". The Claude process for manufacturing ammonia was named for him.
Claude was an active collaborator with the German occupiers of France during the Second World War, for which he was imprisoned in 1945 and stripped of his honors.
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