Johann Heinrich Pott (6 October 1692 – 29 March 1777) was a Prussian physician, chemist, and a glass and porcelain technologist. He is considered a pioneer of pyrochemistry. He examined the elements

bismuth Bismuth is a chemical element; it has symbol Bi and atomic number 83. It is a post-transition metal and one of the pnictogens, with chemical properties resembling its lighter group 15 siblings arsenic and antimony. Elemental bismuth occurs nat ...

and

manganese Manganese is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Mn and atomic number 25. It is a hard, brittle, silvery metal, often found in minerals in combination with iron. Manganese was first isolated in the 1770s. It is a transition m ...

apart from attempting improvements to glass and

porcelain Porcelain (), also called china, is a ceramic material made by heating Industrial mineral, raw materials, generally including kaolinite, in a kiln to temperatures between . The greater strength and translucence of porcelain, relative to oth ...

production.

Biography

Pott was born in

Halberstadt Halberstadt (; Eastphalian dialect, Eastphalian: ''Halverstidde'') is a town in the state of Saxony-Anhalt in central Germany, the capital of Harz (district), Harz district. Located north of the Harz mountain range, it is known for its old town ...

, son of the royal councillor Johann Andreas Pott (1662–1729) and Dorothea Sophia daughter of Andreas Machenau. He studied at the cathedral school in Halberstadt and Francke's pedagogium before studying theology at the University of Halle. He then shifted to study medicine and chemistry under Georg Ernst Stahl. In 1713 he studied assaying at Mansfield under mining master Lages. He spent two years along with two of his brothers as travelling evangelists for the

Community of True Inspiration The Community of True Inspiration, also known as the True Inspiration Congregations, Inspirationalists, and the Amana Church Society) is a Radical Pietist group of Christians descending from settlers of German, Swiss, and Austrian descent who se ...

but he left the sect in 1715 and returned to study chemistry at Halle, receiving a doctorate in 1716 on

sulfur Sulfur ( American spelling and the preferred IUPAC name) or sulphur ( Commonwealth spelling) is a chemical element; it has symbol S and atomic number 16. It is abundant, multivalent and nonmetallic. Under normal conditions, sulfur atoms ...

under Friedrich Hoffmann. He worked as a physician in Halberstadt before moving to Berlin in 1720 and became a professor of chemistry at the Collegium Medico Chirurgicum in 1724. Like his mentor Stahl, he was a promoter of the

phlogiston theory The phlogiston theory, a superseded scientific theory, postulated the existence of a fire-like element dubbed phlogiston () contained within combustible bodies and released during combustion. The name comes from the Ancient Greek (''burnin ...

. He succeeded Caspar Neumann (1683–1737) as professor of pharmaceutical chemistry. In 1753 he attempted to get his son-in-law Ernst Gottfried Kurella into a professorship and clashed publicly with Johann Theodor Eller whose student Brandes took the position. Pott's chemistry contributions included the use of borax and phosphorus beads in analysis. He examined

graphite Graphite () is a Crystallinity, crystalline allotrope (form) of the element carbon. It consists of many stacked Layered materials, layers of graphene, typically in excess of hundreds of layers. Graphite occurs naturally and is the most stable ...

which he differentiated from the contemporary idea that it was lead. Pott established a porcelain factory in Freienwalde under the orders of Frederick II. He examined the composition of pyrolusite. Pott married the daughter of businessman Stanislaus Rücker.

Publications

* Exercitationes chymicae (1738) * Collectiones observationum et animadversionum chymicarum, 1739 and 1741 * Lithogeognosia (1746–57)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pott, Johann Heinrich 1692 births 1777 deaths Prussian physicians 18th-century German physicians Chemists from the Kingdom of Prussia