Henri Léon Ungemach (19 September 1879 – 11 June 1936) was an Alsatian mineralogist who made a collection of minerals, nearly 3000 of which are now held at the

Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle The French National Museum of Natural History, known in French as the ' (abbreviation MNHN), is the national natural history museum of France and a ' of higher education part of Sorbonne Universities. The main museum, with four galleries, is loc ...

in Paris. He described minerals using their crystal geometry. The minerals

Ungemachite Ungemachite is a rare mineral (K3Na8Fe(SO4)6(NO3)2 · 6H2O) known from only two locations - a copper deposit in the Atacama Desert (Chile) and in the New Cobar copper–gold deposit, New South Wales (Australia). The formation of Ungemachite require ...

and Clino-Ungemachite (hydrated salt sulphates) are named after him. He also collected insects (particularly moths), molluscs and plants during his travels.

Life and work

Ungemach was born in

Strasbourg Strasbourg (, , ; german: Straßburg ; gsw, label=Bas Rhin Alsatian, Strossburi , gsw, label=Haut Rhin Alsatian, Strossburig ) is the prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est region of eastern France and the official seat of the Eu ...

to industrialist Charles Léon and Marie Élisabeth . He went to study at the Jean Sturm Gymnasium in Strasbourg before going to the

Eidgenossische Technische Hochschule (colloquially) , former_name = eidgenössische polytechnische Schule , image = ETHZ.JPG , image_size = , established = , type = Public , budget = CHF 1.896 billion (2021) , rector = Günther Dissertori , president = Joël Mesot , ac ...

in Zurich to study chemistry. He graduated in 1904 and went to the Imperial University of Strasbourg where he received a doctorate in 1907 with a thesis ("Die Erzlagerstätten des Weilertales") on the minerals of the Val de Villé. He travelled to North America before joining in prospecting for silver in the Val de Villé from 1908. In 1912 he joined the Compagnie Générale des Colonies for prospecting in Morocco and Madagascar. During World War I he joined an Alsatian regiment but refused to fight for the Germans. After World War I he travelled extensively including to Ethiopia. Chronic bronchitis made him return to Strasbourg in 1932 where he began to catalogue the mineral collections in the university. He studied crystals and made goniometric measurements of more than 2300 crystals using a Babinet-Fuess one-circle reflecting

goniometer A goniometer is an instrument that either measures an angle or allows an object to be rotated to a precise angular position. The term goniometry derives from two Greek words, γωνία (''gōnía'') 'angle' and μέτρον (''métron'') 'me ...

. He drew the crystal structures with great care and calculated Miller indices for the faces. His work was later used in comparisons with X-ray crystallography results. His diagrams were also used in the atlas produced by

Victor Goldschmidt Victor Moritz Goldschmidt (27 January 1888 in Zürich – 20 March 1947 in Oslo) was a Norwegian mineralogist considered (together with Vladimir Vernadsky) to be the founder of modern geochemistry and crystal chemistry, developer of the Goldsch ...

(1853–1933). He introduced a term "syntaxy" referring to intergrowth of dimorphous substances. Just before his death he passed on some of his collections and manuscripts to José Donnay of the University of Baltimore. Donnay donated the collections to the Canadian museum. After his death some of his collections went to the Université de Liège in Belgium. His lepidopteran collections are in Paris. A number of species were described from his collections and named after him including: * '' Colotis ungemachi'' Le Cerf, 1922 * '' Tarucus ungemachi'' Stempffer, 1924 * ''Cigaritis allardi ungemachi'' Rothschild, 1926 * ''Plebejus martini ungemachi'' Rothschild, 1926 * '' Acraea ungemachi'' Le Cerf, 1927 * ''Charaxes lactetinctus ungemachi'' Le Cerf, 1927 * '' Atlantarctia ungemachi'' Le Cerf, 1924 * ''Odontocheilopteryx ungemachi'' Tams, 1931 * ''Adactylotis ungemachi'' D. Lucas, 1933 * ''Uollega ungemachi'' Berio, 1945 * ''Aspidhampsonia ungemachi'' Laporte, 1978 * ''Aspidifrontia ungemachi'' Laporte, 1978 * ''Amazonides ungemachi'' Laporte, 1984 * ''Stilbotis ungemachi'' Laporte, 1984 * '' Oreocossus ungemachi'' Rougeot, 1977 Ungemach married Éva Denise Andrée, daughter of the French art historian Léonce Bénédite in Paris in 1908. They had four children.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ungemach, Henri 1879 births 1936 deaths French mineralogists