Alchemy in Denmark

Fink-Jensen, Morten

doi:10.1163/9789004325968_003

Cited by 3 publications

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“…The astronomer Tycho Brahe (1546-1601) was the most famous practitioner of alchemy in Danish history, and many of the kings shared his interest. 17 Frederick IV, who had a furnace in his palace, even hired the Italian alchemist Grimaldy in 1708 -the same year as he bought Aardal Copperworks -to demonstrate his skills in making gold, and others followed later. 18 Mining in the king's name started in Aardal in summer 1708, and after some months all the 60 miners who had earlier been working at the copperworks, were employed there.…”

Section: The Beginning In Aardalmentioning

confidence: 99%

Great expectations: geological theories and technological transfer at Aardal Copperworks in Norway in the first half of the eighteenth century

Johannessen

2019

Business History

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Aardal Copperworks in Western Norway were a small royally owned copperworks that operated at an enormous loss during the first decades of the eighteenth century. When the king did not close it down after short time, he had to choose between two options: Trust the director who, based on certain geological theories, predicted that large supplies of copper and other metals were to be found further down in the mountains or lease the copperworks to English interests who would introduce modern smelting technology based on coal. The king chose the first and his successor or rather the treasury the second. Both were unsuccessful, and Aardal Copperworks only became a minor episode in Norwegian mining historybut none-the-less included spectacular ideas, boundless optimism, extraordinary efforts and a tough reality.

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Section: The Beginning In Aardalmentioning

confidence: 99%

Great expectations: geological theories and technological transfer at Aardal Copperworks in Norway in the first half of the eighteenth century

Johannessen

2019

Business History

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Chemistry, Medicine, and Gold‐Making: Tycho Brahe, Helwig Dieterich, Otto Tachenius, and Johann Glauber

Wentrup

2022

ChemPlusChem

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17 th century chemistry was concerned largely with iatrochemistry (medicinal chemistry) and the transmutation of metals, especially with the purpose of making gold. Thus, Johann Rudolph Glauber made a living making and selling chemicals such as nitric acid and medicaments such as aurum potabile (drinkable gold), but he also believed in the transmutation or "improvement" of metals and the "augmentation" of gold, and he sold recipes for such processes. This perspective aims to provide a snapshot of the range of 17 th century chemistry by analysis of the efforts of four representatives to make drugs, chemicals, and gold. It will be concluded that early modern chemists were unable to break out from the conceptual doctrines imposed by Aristotle and Paracelsus, which made transmutation perfectly logical. No further scientific advance could be made until the idea that all things are composed of the same basic constituents was abandoned in favour of the atomic theory.

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Hans Egede (1686–1758) and the alchemical tradition in Denmark-Norway

Norrgrén

2019

Sci Context

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ArgumentHans Egede (1686–1758), the famous missionary and natural historian in Greenland, was one of very few known Norwegian alchemists. This article seeks to place Egede’s alchemy in the context of the European alchemical tradition by identifying his sources in alchemical literature. Through an analysis of Egede’s account of an alchemical experiment performed by him in 1727, Ole Borch, Johann Joachim Becher, and Michael Sendivogius are identified as his main sources. Egede’s procedure and choice of materials are shown to be based on texts by these authors. The article argues that Egede’s alchemical interest was more pervasive than hitherto understood, through the demonstration of connections between his alchemical studies and his work as a natural historian. Further it is argued that Egede’s alchemy was not unique or anachronistic but exemplifies the continued belief in and practice of transmutational alchemy in Denmark-Norway in the early decades of the eighteenth century.

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Alchemy in Denmark

Cited by 3 publications

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Great expectations: geological theories and technological transfer at Aardal Copperworks in Norway in the first half of the eighteenth century

Great expectations: geological theories and technological transfer at Aardal Copperworks in Norway in the first half of the eighteenth century

Chemistry, Medicine, and Gold‐Making: Tycho Brahe, Helwig Dieterich, Otto Tachenius, and Johann Glauber

Hans Egede (1686–1758) and the alchemical tradition in Denmark-Norway

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