[1] The presumption that solid and liquid are adjacent states of matter was underscored by Friedrich Reinitzer in 1888 when he noted a cloudy mesophase of cholesteryl benzoate between 145.5 °C and 178.5 °C.

The subject was taken up in Germany, and in 1907 also in France by Georges Friedel and François Grandjean, as they described the "focal conic liquid".

Second, Friedel coined the term smectic phase for a layered mesophase having the structure of neat soap.

Third, Friedel use the term cholesteric phase for materials like cholesteryl benzoate, and noted that such mesophases "involve strong twists around a direction normal to the positive optical axis".

Indeed, In 1931, Georges published, with his son Edmond Friedel, the results of their X-ray crystallography studies: "The physical properties of the mesophases in general, and their importance in a scheme of classification.