Johann Kunckel, awarded
Swedish nobility
The Swedish nobility ( sv, Adeln eller Ridderskapet och Adeln) has historically been a legally and/or socially privileged class in Sweden, and part of the so-called ''frälse'' (a derivation from Old Swedish meaning ''free neck''). The archaic term ...
in 1693 under the Swedish name von Löwenstern-Kunckel and the German version of the name Kunckel von Löwenstern (1630 - prob. 20 March 1703),
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
**Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ge ...
chemist, was born in 1630 (or 1638), near
Rendsburg
Rendsburg ( da, Rendsborg, also ''Rensborg'', nds, Rendsborg, also ''Rensborg'') is a town on the River Eider and the Kiel Canal in the central part of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It is the capital of the ''Kreis'' (district) of Rendsburg-Eck ...
, his father being
alchemist
Alchemy (from Arabic: ''al-kīmiyā''; from Ancient Greek: χυμεία, ''khumeía'') is an ancient branch of natural philosophy, a philosophical and protoscientific tradition that was historically practiced in China, India, the Muslim ...
to the court of
Holstein
Holstein (; nds, label=Northern Low Saxon, Holsteen; da, Holsten; Latin and historical en, Holsatia, italic=yes) is the region between the rivers Elbe and Eider. It is the southern half of Schleswig-Holstein, the northernmost state of German ...
. He became chemist and
apothecary
''Apothecary'' () is a mostly archaic term for a medical professional who formulates and dispenses '' materia medica'' (medicine) to physicians, surgeons, and patients. The modern chemist (British English) or pharmacist (British and North Amer ...
to the dukes of
Lauenburg, and then to the
Elector of Saxony, Johann Georg II, who put him in charge of the royal laboratory at
Dresden
Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label= Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth ...
. Intrigues engineered against him caused him to resign this position in 1677, and for a time he lectured on chemistry at
Annaberg and
Wittenberg
Wittenberg ( , ; Low Saxon: ''Wittenbarg''; meaning ''White Mountain''; officially Lutherstadt Wittenberg (''Luther City Wittenberg'')), is the fourth largest town in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Wittenberg is situated on the River Elbe, north of ...
. Invited to
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitu ...
by
Frederick William, in 1679 he became director of the laboratory and glass works of
Brandenburg
Brandenburg (; nds, Brannenborg; dsb, Bramborska ) is a state in the northeast of Germany bordering the states of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Saxony, as well as the country of Poland. With an area of 29,480 squ ...
. In 1688 the king of Sweden,
Charles XI
Charles XI or Carl ( sv, Karl XI; ) was King of Sweden from 1660 until his death, in a period of Swedish history known as the Swedish Empire (1611–1721).
He was the only son of King Charles X Gustav of Sweden and Hedwig Eleonora of Holstein- ...
, brought him to
Stockholm
Stockholm () is the capital and largest city of Sweden as well as the largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people live in the municipality, with 1.6 million in the urban area, and 2.4 million in the metropo ...
,
ennobling him under the name ''von Löwenstern-Kunckel'' in 1693 and making him a member of the
Bergskollegium, the Board of Mines. He died probably on 20 March 1703 near Stockholm (other sources claim he died the previous year 1702 at Dreissighufen, his country house near Prenden, Germany).
Kunkel shares with
Boyle
Boyle is an English, Irish and Scottish surname of Gaelic, Anglo-Saxon or Norman origin. In the northwest of Ireland it is one of the most common family names. Notable people with the surname include:
Disambiguation
* Adam Boyle (disambiguation) ...
the honor of having discovered the secret of the process by which
Hennig Brand
Hennig Brand (; c. 1630c. 1692 or c. 1710) was a German alchemist who lived and worked in Hamburg. In 1669, Brand accidentally discovered the chemical element phosphorus while searching for the "philosopher's stone", a substance which was believed ...
of
Hamburg
Hamburg (, ; nds, label=Hamburg German, Low Saxon, Hamborg ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg (german: Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg; nds, label=Low Saxon, Friee un Hansestadt Hamborg),. is the List of cities in Germany by popul ...
had prepared
phosphorus
Phosphorus is a chemical element with the symbol P and atomic number 15. Elemental phosphorus exists in two major forms, white phosphorus and red phosphorus, but because it is highly reactive, phosphorus is never found as a free element on Ea ...
in 1669, and he found how to make artificial ruby (red glass) by the incorporation of
Purple of Cassius
Purple of Cassius is a purple pigment formed by the reaction of gold salts with tin(II) chloride. It has been used to impart glass with a red coloration (see ''cranberry glass''), as well as to determine the presence of gold as a chemical test.
...
. His work also included observations on putrefaction and
fermentation
Fermentation is a metabolic process that produces chemical changes in organic substrates through the action of enzymes. In biochemistry, it is narrowly defined as the extraction of energy from carbohydrates in the absence of oxygen. In food p ...
, which he spoke of as sisters, on the nature of salts and on the preparation of pure metals. Though he lived in an atmosphere of alchemy, he derided the notion of the
alkahest
In Renaissance alchemy, alkahest was the theorized "universal solvent". It was supposed to be capable of dissolving any other substance, including gold, without altering or destroying its fundamental components.
Among its philosophical and sp ...
or universal
solvent
A solvent (s) (from the Latin '' solvō'', "loosen, untie, solve") is a substance that dissolves a solute, resulting in a solution. A solvent is usually a liquid but can also be a solid, a gas, or a supercritical fluid. Water is a solvent for ...
, and denounced the deceptions of fraudulent people who pretended to effect the transmutation of metals (this does not mean he did not believe in transmutation, though; in his "Experimental Confirmation of Chymical Philosophy" alone he claims to have achieved at least three different transmutations), he believed
mercury to be a constituent of all metals and heavy minerals, though he held there was no proof of the presence of "sulphur comburens".
His chief works were ''Öffentliche Zuschrift von dem Phosphor Mirabil'' (1678); ''Ars vitriaria experimentalis'' (1689) and ''Laboratorium chymicum'' (1716). As is discussed in his ''Laboratorium chymicum'', Kunckel was involved in early experiments into the production of
explosive mercury.
External links
*
''Johann von Löwenstern-Kunckel''in
Nordisk familjebok
''Nordisk familjebok'' (, "Nordic Family Book") is a Swedish encyclopedia that was published in print from between 1876 and 1993, and that is now fully available in digital form via Project Runeberg at Linköping University. Despite their co ...
(1911).
*
''Johann von Löwenstern-Kunckel''in
Dansk biografisk Lexikon.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lowenstern-Kunckel, Johann von
1630 births
1703 deaths
17th-century German scientists
Swedish nobility
Members of the French Academy of Sciences
People from the Duchy of Holstein
17th-century German writers
17th-century German male writers
People from Rendsburg
Scientists from Schleswig-Holstein