caption death_date death_place birth_place image_size nationality field work_institutions birth_date known_for image article_title name
hippolyte mège-mouriès 31 may 1880 paris draguignan 150px french chemist hôtel-dieu hospital 24 october 1817 margarine megemouries.jpg hippolyte mège-mouriès
 hippolyte mège-mouriès
hippolyte mège-mouriès

hippolyte mège-mouriès -lrb- draguignan 24 october 1817 - paris 31 may 1880 -rrb- was a french chemist and the inventor of margarine .
he was born as hippolyte mège , the son of a primary school teacher , but later added his mother 's surname to his own .
in 1838 , mège obtained a job in the central pharmacy of the hôtel-dieu hospital in paris and started to publish original contributions in applied chemistry .
mège focussed on fat processing in the 1860s , which culminated in 1869 in a patent for margarine .
his invention involved mixing processed beef tallow with skimmed milk , and resulted in a cheap but qualitatively good substitute for butter ` for the working class and incidentally the navy ' .
mège received a prize from the french government , formally led by emperor louis napoleon iii .
in 1871 , mège sold his invention to the dutch firm jurgens , one of the pillars of unilever .
