Robert B. Goldschmidt (1877–1935) was a Belgian chemist, physicist, and engineer who first proposed the idea of standardized microfiche (microfilm).
Goldschmidt was a polymath who also made advances in aviation and radio, among other fields. In 1913 he constructed a major radio facility at Laeken, Belgium, where in 1914 he and Raymond Braillard inaugurated Europe's first regular radio concert broadcasts. He was also a participant in the first and second international Solvay Conferences reviewing outstanding issues in chemistry and physics.
Education and academic career
Educated in Brussels and Berlin, Goldschmidt was a professor of chemistry at the University of Brussels for some thirty years.
Career
Microfilm
In the first years of the twentieth century, he worked with Paul Otlet on the creation of microfilm, then known as "microphotographs. In 1906, he and Otlet proposed what they called the "livre microphotographique," which they considered to be a cheaper, more space-saving means of storing data. In their 1906 essay "Sur une forme nouvelle du Livre: Le Livre Microphotographique," Goldschmidt and Otlet wrote that from the point of view of scientific research, books are not the best possible means of storing information, because "access to the libraries is not always easy and delays in the transmission of books often discourage the most tenacious workers, to the detriment of scientific progress....Travel by scholars, the international exchange of scientific books between libraries, the copies or extracts requested from abroad, are seriously under-resourced." Thus there is a need for "a new form of book that will help overcome these major inconveniences." They proposed that a solution to the problem lay in photography, and proceeded to explain how a single card measuring 12.5 X 7.5 cm, providing 72 square cm of space (margins excluded) could contain the contents of an entire 72-page book.
Radio
During the first decade of the twentieth century, Belgium became interested in how the new technology of radio communication (then known as "télégraphie sans fil" (T.S.F.)) could be of value to the country. Interest initially centered on the need to establish effective communication throughout its sprawling central African colony, the Belgian Congo. A second major project would be the construction of a high-powered station in Belgium, that could be used to maintain contact with the colony.
Much of the early developmental work was done under the patronage of the King Albert I, who had an early interest in the technology, including his own private laboratory. In 1909, the king made a tour of the Congo, and determined that there was a need to improve communications throughout its vast territory. There was also a need to establish reliable communication from Belgium to the colony. Goldschmidt was selected to take the leading role in the projects. His work in the radio field dated to 1907, when he had experimented with radiotelegraphy at the Brussels Palace of Justice; the experiments involved Tervuren, the citadel of Namur and to the observatory of Liege.
The central site for the radio projects was established at the Villa Lacoste, located near Brussels on the grounds of the summer Royal Palace of Laeken. A training school for operators, workshops and a research laboratory were established at this location. Raymond Braillard, a French engineer, was appointed as both the Chief Engineer of the Congo facilities, and the director of the Laeken installations. By the end of 1913 twelve radiotelegraph stations had been established to provide communication throughout the Belgian Congo. That same year also saw completion at Laeken of a high-powered radiotelegraph station used for transmissions to the colony. The original site included eight towers tall, supporting the station's transmitting antenna. In the fall of 1913 it was reported that messages were now being successfully transmitted from Laeken to the Belgian Congo capital of Boma.
In the summer of 1914, the foundation was laid for construction of a new central antenna tower, planned to soar high, or taller than the Eiffel Tower. However, World War I broke out in late July, and the next month Germany invaded Belgium, eventually occupying 90% of the country. To keep the valuable Laeken radio facility from falling under enemy control, in August explosives and straw-fed fires were used to level the radio towers and completely destroy the equipment, a major setback to Goldschmidt's developmental work of the previous three years.