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BECHER, JOHANN JOACHIM (1635-1682)
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See also:BECHER, JOHANN See also:JOACHIM (1635-1682) , See also:German chemist, physician, See also:scholar and adventurer, was See also:born at See also:Spires in 1635• His See also:father, a Lutheran See also:minister, died while he was yet a See also:child, leaving a widow and three See also:children. The See also:mother married again; the stepfather spent the tiny patrimony of the children; and at the See also:age of thirteen Becher found himself responsible not only for his own support but also for that of his mother and See also:brothers. He learned and practised several small handicrafts, and devoting his nights to study of the most See also:miscellaneous description earned a See also:pittance by teaching. In 1654, at the age of nineteen, he published an-edition of Salzthal's Tractatus de lapide trismegisto; his Metallurgia followed in 166o; and the next See also:year appeared his See also:Character See also:pro notitia linguarum universali, in which he gives 1o,000 words for use as a universal See also:language. In 1663 he published his Oedipum Chemicum and a See also:book on animals, See also:plants and minerals (Thier- Krauter- and Bergbuch). At the same See also:time he was full of schemes, See also:practical and unpractical. He negotiated with the elector See also:palatine for the See also:establishment of factories at See also:Mannheim; suggested to the elector of See also:Bavaria the creation of German colonies in See also:Guiana and the See also:West Indies; and brought down upon himself the wrath of the See also:Munich merchants by planning a See also:government See also:monopoly of See also:cloth manufacture and of See also:trade. He fled from Munich, but found a ready welcome elsewhere. In 1666 he was appointed teacher of
See also:medicine at See also:Mainz and See also:body-physician to the See also:archbishop-elector; and the same year he was made councillor of See also:commerce (Commerzienrat) at See also:Vienna, where he had gained the powerful support of Albrecht, See also:Count See also:Zinzendorf, See also:prime minister and See also:grand chamber-lain of the See also:emperor See also:Leopold I. Sent by the emperor on a See also:mission to See also: He then returned to Bavaria, and his See also:absence bringing him into See also:ill odour at Vienna, he complained of the incompetence of the See also:council of commerce and dedicated a See also:tract on trade (Commercien-Tractat) to the emperor Leopold. His Psychosophia followed, and " An invitation to a psychological community " (Einladung zu einer psychologischen Societal), for the realization of which See also:Duke Gustavus See also:Adolphus of See also:Mecklenburg-See also:Gustrow (d. 1695) offered him in 1674 a site in his duchy. The See also:plan came to nothing, and next year Becher was again busy at Vienna, trying to transmute Danube See also:sand into See also:gold, and See also:writing his Theses chemicae veritatem transmutations melallorum evincentes. For some See also:reason he incurred the disfavour of Zinzendorf and fled to Holland, where with the aid of the government he continued his experiments. Pursued even there by the resentment of his former See also:patron, he crossed to See also:England, whence he visited the mines of See also:Scotland at the See also:request of See also:Prince See also:Rupert. He afterwards went for the same purpose to See also:Cornwall, where he spent a year. At the beginning of 168o he presented a See also:paper to the Royal Society, De nova temporis dimetiendi ratione et accurata horologiorum construction, in which he attempted to deprive See also:Huygens of the See also:honour of applying the pendulum to the measurement of time. The views of Becher on the See also:composition of substances See also:mark little essential advance on those of the two preceding centuries, and the three elements or principles of See also:salt, See also:mercury and See also:sulphur reappear as the vitrifiable, the See also:mercurial and the combustible earths. When a substance was burnt he supposed that the last of these, the terra pinguis, was liberated, and this conception is the basis on which G. E. See also:Stahl founded his See also:doctrine of " phlogiston." His ideas and experiments on the nature of minerals and other substances are voluminously set forth in his Physica Subterranea (See also:Frankfort, 1669) ; an edition of this, published at See also:Leipzig in 1703, contains two supplements (Experimentum chymicum novum and Demonstratio Philosophica), proving the truth and possibility of transmuting metals, Experimentum novum ac curiosum de minera arenaria perpetua, the paper on timepieces already mentioned and also Specimen Becherianum, a See also:summary of his doctrines by Stahl, who in the See also:preface acknowledges indebtedness to him in the words Becheriana stint Time prof ero. At See also:Falmouth he wrote his Laboratorium portabile and at See also:Truro the Alphabetum minerale. In 1682 he returned to See also:London, where he wrote the Chemischer Gliickshafen See also:oder See also:grosse Concordanz and Collection von 1500 Processen and died in See also:October of the same year. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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