28 Facts About Georges Painvin

In 1905, Georges Painvin passed his matriculation exam into the Ecole polytechnique.

On 7 September 1907, Georges Painvin was appointed reserve second lieutenant and assigned to the 33rd Artillery Regiment to attend his third year on obligatory military service.

In 1911, Georges Painvin became professor of palaeontology at the Ecole des Mines de Saint-Etienne and from 1913 at the Ecole des mines de Paris.

On 1 September 1911, Georges Painvin was promoted further in his military service to lieutenant and reassigned to the 53rd Artillery Regiment the following year.

In October 1913, Georges Painvin completed a probationary period at the Ecole superieure de guerre, which resulted in Georges Painvin being assigned to the staff service on 6 April 1914.

Georges Painvin's teaching career would unfortunately be interrupted by the onset of the First World War.

Georges Painvin was assigned to the staff of General Maunoury's 6th Army, with whom he served as an orderly officer.

Under General Maunoury, Georges Painvin participated in the Battle of Ourcq in particular.

However, Georges Painvin's position gave him relative freedom to allow him to be interested in cryptology and ciphers.

Georges Painvin had no training in cryptology but showed considerable passion for these "ciphers".

Georges Painvin asked that he be given intercepted cryptograms transmitted by the invading Imperial Germany.

Georges Painvin was assigned to the "Cabinet noir", the French black room which he would occupy until the end of the War.

Georges Painvin managed to break the ciphers, allowing a more efficient hunt for German submarines.

On 21 January 1915, Georges Painvin proposed a method, the ARC system, which made it possible to discover the cryptographic key used for the encryption and this with a single text.

One path of encrypted diplomatic communications in particular, led to the unravelling of the spy Mata-Hari; during the first months of the war, Georges Painvin's work made it possible to quickly follow the evolution of this enemy figure.

On 5 April 1918, shortly after the Germans launched their Spring Offensive, Georges Painvin discovered two cryptographic keys used for the new ADFGX cipher and was able to decipher the new German cipher system.

Georges Painvin correctly suspected that the 26 letters of the alphabet plus the 10 digits were used and based his cryptanalysis on this assumption.

For Georges Painvin's painstaking efforts and determination, he was honoured and made a Knight of the Legion of Honour in a military capacity on 10 July 1918.

On 19 December 1973, Georges Painvin was elevated to the rank of Grand Officer of the Legion of Honour.

Two years later, in 1968, Nebel and Georges Painvin met in person and Nebel expressed his feelings by saying that the enemies of yesterday meet as the friends of today.

Georges Painvin emphasized that if it had been done as Nebel suggested, he certainly would not have been able to break the encryption.

Georges Painvin mobilised new methods of electrochemistry to produce on a large scale the first stainless steels at affordable prices, helped by the French inventor and industrialist Rene Marie Victor Perrin, who developed the Ugine-Perrin process.

Georges Painvin would remain at the cutting edge of technology 40 years later with the inauguration of the giant Fos-sur-Mer steel plant near the Rhone.

Georges Painvin was chairman of the chemical industries organizing committee, as well as of the Paris Chamber of Commerce.

Georges Painvin was considered "a large-scale industrialist, who works very sincerely and very honestly with the German services"; and, "in the minds of many people, Mr Georges Painvin was regarded as pro-regime".

Under two demission directions before the court of justice of Seine and the Comite national interprofessionnel d'epuration for acts of collaboration by French civilians during the German occupation of France, Georges Painvin resigned as president and administrator of Ugine steelworks on 12 December 1945.

In 1948, Georges Painvin moved to Casablanca where he was entrusted in 1950 with the presidency of the industrial, financial and services conglomerate Omnium Nord-Africain, being delegate president of the Societe Cherifienne d'Exploitation d'Ouvrages Maritimes, of the Societe Cherifienne du platre and member of the Casablanca Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Georges Painvin retired in 1962, and returned to France at the age of 76, he died in 1980 at the age of 93.