Reluctant Demobilization: Ernest Solvay’s Scientific Patronage of the International Institutes for Physics and Chemistry and the Legacy of World War I

The First Solvay Conference on Physics took place in Brussels in October 1911 under the impulse of Walther Nernst and at the invitation of the Belgian industrialist Ernest Solvay. The prestigious event was soon formalized into a regular scientific meeting organized by the Solvay International Institute for Physics created in 1912. Its president was the Dutch physicist Hendrik Lorentz. A similar movement occurred in the field of chemistry. Solvay first decided to fund the third congress of the International Association of Chemical Societies held in Brussels in September 1913, which was to form the core project of the Solvay International Institute for Chemistry. On the other hand, no official Solvay Conference on Chemistry took place before April 1922, shortly before Solvay’s death. Disagreements concerning the scientific orientation of the Institute for Chemistry have long prevailed over other causes. Yet, political motives have also their share of explanation.The paper intends to test the impact of the First World War and its legacy on the organization of both the Physics and Chemistry Conferences. Drawing upon first-hand material from public and private collections (including Ernest Solvay’s private papers), I will argue that Solvay’s personal wartime experience was determinant in reaching out to scientists that were convinced by the need to reframe the International Institutes along the patterns of the political climate in post-war Europe.