Freiberg Mining Research Articles

Wilhelm August Lampadius (1772–1842)

AT the time when geologists and mining students flocked to the Freiberg Mining Academy in Saxony, and when Gottlob Werner was at the height of his fame, a twenty-year-old chemist because a member of the staff, and from that time onwards for half a century he taught, wrote and experimented with great success. This young chemist was Wilhelm August Lampadius, who in his fourteenth year had been apprenticed to a Göttingen apothecary. Born at Hehlen in Brunswick on August 8, 1772, Lampadius lost his father, a pastor, at an early age. Apprenticed by his mother at Göttingen-he devoted his spare time to study and was befriended by the university professors J. F. Gmelin and Lichtenburg. At the age of nineteen he entered the service of the metallurgist Count Steinberg of Bohemia. With the Count he made a journey to Russia and in the Count's laboratory made experiments on electricity and heat. His talents becoming known to Werner, he was given a post at Freiberg and on the death of C. E. Gellert (1713-1795) he was made professor of chemistry. In this situation he assisted German industry in many ways. He spread a knowledge of Lavoisier's discoveries, and made researches connected with mining and metallurgy, chemical manufactures, agriculture and meteorology. Especially important among the books he published was his handbook on smelting. A man of estimable character, respected alike by his friends and colleagues, he died at Freiberg on April 13, 1842) in his seventieth year. His place in the Academy was taken by Karl Friedrich Plattner (1800-1858), the chief of the royal department of assaying and an authority on the use of the blow pipe.