Johann Daniel Kraft

Johann Daniel Kraft was a German merchant and alchemist .

In 1674 he set up a silk manufacture in Leipzig. For a similar Dresden company in Neustadt-Ostra (Friedrichstadt) the elector Johann Georg II had a manufacturing house (Friedrichstraße 19) built and the necessary materials and instruments purchased. Kraft planted large plantations of mulberry trees (as food for the silkworms ) and also gave practical lessons on how to grow them in his garden. In order to set up a wool factory, the tax advanced 2000 thalers and Kraft received 300 thalers in salary since 1677. In addition, he was to receive 6,000 thalers as a reward if the wool factory came into being. He was also given a monopoly to trade in hops. However, since his successes did not meet expectations, the Meissen Deputation Day in 1680 decided to terminate the contract.

In 1669, Hennig Brand discovered the production of phosphorus . He had been telling his friends about it since 1675 and this was how the alchemist Johannes Kunckel found out about it, who in turn wrote to Kraft about the new discovery. Kraft came to Hamburg without writing to Kunckel about it, and behind Kunckel's back Brand sold all of the phosphorus in stock to Kraft on the condition not to tell anyone about it.

Kraft made money introducing phosphorus to various crowned heads of Europe. One of them was Duke Johann Friedrich of Saxony, and Gottfried Leibniz was present at this demonstration . In the same year Kraft also showed Robert Boyle the liquid noctilucas of phosphorus.

In 1676 he signed a contract with Gottfried Leibniz and Georg Hermann Schuller and possibly also Johann Joachim Becher (only named as our Proteus or our gold maker ) that they wanted to share the proceeds of any success in their gold maker attempts.

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• LINDAU, History of the royal capital and residence city of Dresden, p. 495

Web links

• Kraft at Saxon Biography
• Kraft at Neue Deutsche Biographie
• Johann Daniel Kraft in the Stadtwiki Dresden