August Nordenskiöld

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August Nordenskiöld (born February 6, 1754 in Eriksnäs , Finland , † December 10, 1792 in Sierra Leone ) was a Swedish alchemist and miner.

Life

He was the son of Carl Fredrik Nordenskiöld the Elder (1702–1779), an officer and economist, and Hedvig Märta Ramsay and the brother of Admiral Otto Henrik Nordenskiöld (1747–1832), who fought in the American Revolutionary War (with the British and then with the French) and in the Russo-Swedish War from 1788 to 1790 (naval battles of Hogland 1788 and Öland 1789). Other brothers were Carl Fredrik Nordenskiöld the Younger (1756–1828) - also Swedenborgian and political pamphleteer - Adolf Gustaf Nordenskiöld (1745–1821), Anders Johan Nordenskiöld, Ulrik Nordenskiöld and the sisters Hedvig Juliana and Sofia Helena. A son of Adolf Gustav Nordenskiöld was Nils Gustaf Nordenskiöld (1792–1866), a well-known well-traveled mineralogist, friend and student of Jöns Jacob Berzelius and supervisor of mining in Finland, and who in turn was the father of the famous explorer Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld .

Nordenskiöld studied from 1770 at the academy in Åbo (Turku), with the dissertation in 1772 (Om tennets och dess malmers beskaffenhet) and from 1772 in Stockholm in the mining college of mining, chemistry and mineralogy. He gained a reputation as a mineral collector, dealt with alchemy (especially the search for the philosopher's stone with which one could make gold according to alchemical teachings) and was a follower of the teachings of Emanuel Swedenborg . In the search for the Philosopher's Stone, he was found by King Gustav III. supported who sent him to London (1779) to improve his chemical-alchemical knowledge. From there he tried to smuggle Swedenborg's book Vera christiana religio to Sweden, but it was confiscated. In 1780 he returned to Sweden on the orders of the king and had an alchemical laboratory in Drottningholm Palace under strict secrecy . After there was no success, the king broke it off and Nordenskiöld went to Finland in 1785 as miner captain. He had been appointed to this position as early as 1782, but remained in Sweden and apparently had hardly any service obligations in this office. Instead, he devoted himself to spreading the teachings of Swedenborg; around 1784 he also worked intensively on the Swedenborgians' magazine Aftonbladet . In Finland he again had an alchemical laboratory in Nystad with Carl Bergklint. In 1787 he was back in Sweden, where he again ran a laboratory in Drottningholm Palace under the king's favorite Baron Adolf Fredrik Munck (1749-1831). But he couldn't get along with Munck. In 1789 he went to England and subsequently traveled a lot between England, France and Sweden, writing pamphlets, for example, about a free community to be founded on the coast of Africa (a free society in the sense of the Swedenborgians), where he also went by ship in 1792 traveled, partly to explore mining, partly to promote his utopian, Swedenborgian ideas, which also included an abolition of slavery, which was also adopted by King Gustav III. was supported. At the same time, opponents of slavery around John Clarkson (1764–1828) tried to resettle freed US slaves in Sierra Leone. During the journey inland there were clashes with locals and he died in Sierra Leone on the way back to the coast. There are different reports about it, according to others he died of a fever.

His skull and alchemist oven can be seen at the Nordenskiöld family home, a museum (Alikartano Museum, formerly Frugård) in Mäntsälä , Finland.

Nordenskiöld also inspired novelists in Finland (Dag himal, Des Königs Goldmacher , 1945, Antti Tuuri Alchemists , 2013)

Fonts

  • A plain system of alchemy (originated in London)
  • Plan for a free community on the coast of Africa . 1789.
  • Församlingformen uti det Nya Jerusalem . 1792.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ There were two Nordenskiöld alchemist ovens on the family estate in Frugård, one went to the Nordic Museum in Stockholm around 1880, the other remained on the estate.
  2. ↑ Alikartano Museum .
personal data
SURNAME Nordenskiöld, August
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swedish alchemist and miner
DATE OF BIRTH February 6, 1754
PLACE OF BIRTH Eriksnäs , Finland
DATE OF DEATH December 10, 1792
Place of death Sierra Leone