Georges-Joseph Ranque (7 February 1898 – 15 January 1973) was the inventor of the Ranque-Hilsch
vortex tube, which generates streams of hot and cold gas from a stream of compressed gas.
Georges-Joseph Ranque was born in
Ambérieu-en-Bugey, France in 1898. His father, Léon-Joseph Ranque, worked as an engineer for a railroad; his mother was Joséphine Saint Germain. Georges attended the St. Louis
lycée
In France, secondary education is in two stages:
* ''Collèges'' () cater for the first four years of secondary education from the ages of 11 to 15.
* ''Lycées'' () provide a three-year course of further secondary education for children between ...
, where he became interested in physics. In 1918, he was admitted to the
École Polytechnique in Paris, where he studied physics. Subsequently he did post-graduate work at the
Conservatoire des Arts-et-Métiers.
For six years he had been interested in the operation of the Pantone carburetor. This led him, in turn, to the study of vortices. In 1922, he was trying to develop an industrial vacuum pump for vacuuming iron filings. While studying the flow of air through the pump, he inserted a cone at one end of a tube in which air was flowing in the form of a vortex, and he noticed what is now called the Ranque effect; namely, that a stream of air could be split into two streams, one of hot air and the other of cold air. In 1931, he filed for a patent on his vortex tube, and in 1933, he presented a paper on it.
In 1923, Ranque went to work for the Saint-Jacques steelworks in
Montluçon
Montluçon (; oc, Montleçon ) is a commune in central France on the river Cher. It is the largest commune in the Allier department, although the department's prefecture is located in the smaller town of Moulins. Its inhabitants are known as ...
, where he improved methods of producing steel. He became head of the metallurgical laboratory at Saint-Jacques, where he helped develop steels that would be used as armor in tanks and in the
Maginot Line
The Maginot Line (french: Ligne Maginot, ), named after the French Minister of War André Maginot, is a line of concrete fortifications, obstacles and weapon installations built by France in the 1930s to deter invasion by Germany and force the ...
.
In 1926, he married Eugénie Pierre in
La Chapelaude
La Chapelaude (; oc, La Chapelauda) is a commune in the Allier department in central France.
Population
See also
*Communes of the Allier department
The following is a list of the 317 communes of the Allier department of France.
Int ...
. The couple had six children: Marie-Josèphe, Pierre, Marie-Noëlle, Marie-Thérèse, Monique and Marie-France.
During the Second World War, he developed steels and alloys that would later be used by the aviation industry. After the war, he accepted a position at the Aubert et Duval steelworks in
Les Ancizes. There, as director of the metallurgical laboratory, he developed alloys for aviation.
In 1972, he published a book on the search for the
philosopher’s stone, ''La Pierre philosophale''.
[Georges-Joseph Ranque, ''La Pierre philosophale'' (Paris, France: Robert Laffont, 1972). This book contains some biographical information about Ranque.]
He died in 1973 in
Colombes
Colombes () is a commune in the northwestern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the centre of Paris. In 2019, Colombes was the 53rd largest city in France.
Name
The name Colombes comes from Latin ''columna'' (Old French ''colombe'') ...
, a suburb of Paris.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ranque, Georges J
1898 births
1973 deaths
People from Ambérieu-en-Bugey
20th-century French inventors