Floris Osmond

Born Mar. 10, 1849, in Paris; died June 18, 1912, in Saint-Lieu, near Paris. French engineer and scientist specializing in metallurgy and metal science.

After graduating from the College of Civil Engineers in Paris, Osmond worked at the factories of Le Creusot and in the laboratories of the Sorbonne, where he conducted research in metallography. Developing the line of thought of the Russian scientist D. K Chernov, he advanced in 1885 a cellular theory of the composition of cast steel. In 1888 he used a thermoelectric pyrometer to measure the critical points discovered in 1868 by Chernov for iron and its carbon alloys. Osmond made substantial improvements in the techniques of microscopic metallography. In 1909 he developed a nomenclature for the structural components of steel and cast iron. He constructed a transformation diagram for alloys of the Fe-Ni system and pointed out the connection between the alloys and the structure of meteorites. A number of Osmond’s papers were devoted to silver, copper, and gold alloys. In 1912, Osmond was made an honorary member of the Russian Metallurgical Society.