Lawrence M. Principe
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- May 2021
- ISBN:
- 9780226700786
- eISBN:
- 9780226700816
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226700816.003.0005
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
Chapter 4 recounts how Homberg’s social position changed dramatically at the start of the eighteenth century, and how that transformed his ability to pursue chymistry when Philippe II, Duc d’Orléans, ...
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Chapter 4 recounts how Homberg’s social position changed dramatically at the start of the eighteenth century, and how that transformed his ability to pursue chymistry when Philippe II, Duc d’Orléans, became both his patron and his collaborator. With Homberg’s participation, Philippe transformed part of his residence at Palais Royal into a lavish chymical laboratory where Philippe and Homberg pursued an array of chymical endeavors, and where other academicians worked under Homberg’s guidance. Philippe equipped the laboratory with the most extraordinary scientific instrument of the day—a gigantic burning lens made by Ehrenfried Walther von Tschirnhaus capable of focusing concentrated sunlight onto chemical substances. Homberg’s first experiments with this device caused him to abandon his new textbook just a few months after he began writing it, and immerse himself in a fervent program of focused research, at the end of which he completely revised his chymical theory with the stunning claim that light incorporated with matter lay at the heart of all chymical change and activity. Significantly, the most profound changes to Homberg’s chymical system can be clearly and convincingly tied to the results of specific experiments.Less
Chapter 4 recounts how Homberg’s social position changed dramatically at the start of the eighteenth century, and how that transformed his ability to pursue chymistry when Philippe II, Duc d’Orléans, became both his patron and his collaborator. With Homberg’s participation, Philippe transformed part of his residence at Palais Royal into a lavish chymical laboratory where Philippe and Homberg pursued an array of chymical endeavors, and where other academicians worked under Homberg’s guidance. Philippe equipped the laboratory with the most extraordinary scientific instrument of the day—a gigantic burning lens made by Ehrenfried Walther von Tschirnhaus capable of focusing concentrated sunlight onto chemical substances. Homberg’s first experiments with this device caused him to abandon his new textbook just a few months after he began writing it, and immerse himself in a fervent program of focused research, at the end of which he completely revised his chymical theory with the stunning claim that light incorporated with matter lay at the heart of all chymical change and activity. Significantly, the most profound changes to Homberg’s chymical system can be clearly and convincingly tied to the results of specific experiments.
Kelly Joan Whitmer
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- January 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780226243771
- eISBN:
- 9780226243801
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226243801.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
This chapter focuses on the efforts of Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, Ehrenfried Walther von Tschirnhaus and the first director of the Orphanage, August Hermann Francke, to devise a “new way” to teach ...
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This chapter focuses on the efforts of Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, Ehrenfried Walther von Tschirnhaus and the first director of the Orphanage, August Hermann Francke, to devise a “new way” to teach mathematics and experimental physics in the Orphanage schools—and to turn the school into a space for research by assembling a collection of curious things, including a variety of scientific instruments such as burning mirrors and an air pump. Tschirnhaus is a figure commonly associated with the German Enlightenment, yet he was attracted to Pietism, particularly the early face of movement in Germany: Philipp Jakob Spener. Francke hosted Tschirnhaus at the Orphanage and took his recommendations very seriously. This chapter also considers both Leibniz and Francke’s interest in using the combined resources of the Orphanage and the Berlin Academy of Sciences, which Francke joined in 1701, to attract the attention of Tsar Peter I and to found a Protestant mission capable that would challenge the success of Jesuit missions abroad.Less
This chapter focuses on the efforts of Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, Ehrenfried Walther von Tschirnhaus and the first director of the Orphanage, August Hermann Francke, to devise a “new way” to teach mathematics and experimental physics in the Orphanage schools—and to turn the school into a space for research by assembling a collection of curious things, including a variety of scientific instruments such as burning mirrors and an air pump. Tschirnhaus is a figure commonly associated with the German Enlightenment, yet he was attracted to Pietism, particularly the early face of movement in Germany: Philipp Jakob Spener. Francke hosted Tschirnhaus at the Orphanage and took his recommendations very seriously. This chapter also considers both Leibniz and Francke’s interest in using the combined resources of the Orphanage and the Berlin Academy of Sciences, which Francke joined in 1701, to attract the attention of Tsar Peter I and to found a Protestant mission capable that would challenge the success of Jesuit missions abroad.
Kelly Joan Whitmer
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- January 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780226243771
- eISBN:
- 9780226243801
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226243801.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
Observing at the Orphanage uncovers the crucial contributions of Halle’s Orphanage to the broader scientific enterprise of the early eighteenth century. Founded by a group of German Lutherans known ...
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Observing at the Orphanage uncovers the crucial contributions of Halle’s Orphanage to the broader scientific enterprise of the early eighteenth century. Founded by a group of German Lutherans known as Pietists in 1695, this Orphanage became the showplace of a “universal seminar” that was affiliated with the newly founded University of Halle and the Berlin Academy of Sciences, forged lasting connections with Tsar Peter the Great and later became the headquarters of the world’s first Protestant mission to India. Yet, due to its reputation as a ‘Pietist’ enclave inhabited mainly by young people, the Orphanage has not been taken seriously as a scientific community. Using a variety of underutilized materials from the organization’s archive, Observing shows how those involved as teachers and pupils refined a range of experimental and observational procedures using material models and instruments and endeavoured to turn eclecticism into a scientific methodology. It calls into question a longstanding tendency to view German Pietists as anti-science and anti-Enlightenment and situates the Orphanage within an ambitious series of schemes for social and educational reform designed to confront the unfriendly culture of disputation still associated with German universities. Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz and his friend, mathematician E. W. von Tschirnhaus, produced some of these schemes and considered the founding of Halle’s Orphanage to be in step with their efforts to promote a new culture of public science centred on the school, wherein cadres of skilled scientific observers pursued collaborative research immersed an atmosphere of friendship and mutual respect.Less
Observing at the Orphanage uncovers the crucial contributions of Halle’s Orphanage to the broader scientific enterprise of the early eighteenth century. Founded by a group of German Lutherans known as Pietists in 1695, this Orphanage became the showplace of a “universal seminar” that was affiliated with the newly founded University of Halle and the Berlin Academy of Sciences, forged lasting connections with Tsar Peter the Great and later became the headquarters of the world’s first Protestant mission to India. Yet, due to its reputation as a ‘Pietist’ enclave inhabited mainly by young people, the Orphanage has not been taken seriously as a scientific community. Using a variety of underutilized materials from the organization’s archive, Observing shows how those involved as teachers and pupils refined a range of experimental and observational procedures using material models and instruments and endeavoured to turn eclecticism into a scientific methodology. It calls into question a longstanding tendency to view German Pietists as anti-science and anti-Enlightenment and situates the Orphanage within an ambitious series of schemes for social and educational reform designed to confront the unfriendly culture of disputation still associated with German universities. Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz and his friend, mathematician E. W. von Tschirnhaus, produced some of these schemes and considered the founding of Halle’s Orphanage to be in step with their efforts to promote a new culture of public science centred on the school, wherein cadres of skilled scientific observers pursued collaborative research immersed an atmosphere of friendship and mutual respect.
