The limits of matter : chemistry, mining, and enlightenment

250 Pages·2015·1.09 MB·English

by  Fors, Hjalmar

The Limits of Matter
A series in the history of chemistry, broadly construed, edited by Angela N. H.
Creager, Ann Johnson, John E. Lesch, Lawrence M. Principe, Alan Rocke, E. C.
Spary, and Audra J. Wolfe, in partnership with the Chemical Heritage Founda-
tion
The Limits of Matter
Chemistry, Mining, and Enlightenment
Hjalmar Fors
The University of Chicago Press :: Chicago and London
Hjalmar Fors is a researcher and teacher in the Department of History of Science and Ideas
at Uppsala University, Sweden.
The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637
The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London
© 2015 by The University of Chicago
All rights reserved. Published 2015.
Printed in the United States of America
24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 1 2 3 4 5
isbn- 13: 978- 0- 226- 19499- 8 (cloth)
isbn- 13: 978- 0- 226- 19504- 9 (e- book)
doi: 10.7208/chicago/978022619504– 9.001.0001
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Fors, Hjalmar, author.
The limits of matter : chemistry, mining, and Enlightenment / Hjalmar Fors.
pages cm — (Synthesis)
isbn 978-0 -2 26-1 9499- 8 (cloth : alk. paper) — isbn 978- 0- 226- 19504- 9 (e- book)
1. Matter—Philosophy. 2. Chemistry—History. 3. Mining engineering—History.
4. Enlightenment. I. Title. II. Series: Synthesis (University of Chicago Press)
bd646.f67 2015
117—dc23
2014017926
o This paper meets the requirements of ansi/niso z39.48- 1992 (Permanence of Paper).
To Karin, Hedda, and Beata
. . . I heard footsteps behind me
And there was a little old man
— Hello!
In scarlet and grey, shuffling away
— (laughter!)
. . .
— Oh, I ought to report you to the Gnome office
— Gnome Office?
— Yes
— Hahahahaha!
. . .
Ha ha ha, hee hee hee
I’m a laughing Gnome and you can’t catch me
Said the laughing Gnome
david bowie, “The Laughing Gnome” (1967)
Contents
1 Introduction: The Edges of the Map 1
2 Of Witches, Trolls, and Inquisitive Men 17
3 Chymists in the Mining Business 43
4 From Curious to Ingenious Knowledge 77
5 Elements of Enlightenment 99
6 Capturing the Laughing Gnome 121
7 Conclusion: Material Reality 147
and the Enlightenment
Acknowledgments 155
Notes 157
Bibliography 201
Index 221

1
Introduction: The Edges of the Map
Intellectual battles over the nature of reality were fought
all over Europe in the seventeenth and eighteenth centu-
ries. They were an integral part of the cultural shift that
is usually referred to as the Enlightenment. At the heart
of the matter lay a massive change in Western epistemol-
ogy. The people of this period raised many questions, and
found their answers to be different from those that had
satisfied their forebears.1 What are the limits of attain-
able knowledge? How should we proceed to understand
the universe? What kinds of entities and forces may our
world contain? The issues were not just philosophical.
Debates raged in many arenas. There was the juridical
question of whether the law should continue to punish
witches who performed malevolent magic. There was the
theological question of whether God still worked miracles
in the modern world, and whether God and the Devil
were aided in their work by legions of angels and demons.
And what about the soul? Was it a spark of the divine
or simply an innate ability to reason rationally? The de-
bate also raged in physics, natural history, and alchemy/
chemistry. How should physics explain phenomena such
as action at a distance and telepathic communication of
thoughts and emotions? How should natural historians
discuss the various beasts— dragons, trolls, gnomes, and
the like— that could not be killed, preserved, and dis-