Cornélie Lebon de Brambilla

Cornélie Lebon, was a French engineer who was also proficient in chemistry. During the French Revolutionary period, her husband Philippe Lebon (1767-1804), invented a process for distilling gas from wood for gas lighting. Following his mysterious death in 1804 in connection with Napoleon's coronation, she valiantly continued her his work while raising a small child and coping with substantial debts. Her devotion to the engineering project was quite unusual for a women of the times. In 1811, she published a memoir detailing Lebon's achievements, noting that she had continued to improve the thermolamp approach. She was subsequently awarded the Prix des arts chimiques for bringing her husband's work to the attention of the authorities and was also awarded an annual annuity for her services.

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