John Adolphus Etzler

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John Adolphus Etzler (actually Johann Adolphus Etzler; * 1791 in Mühlhausen / Thuringia ; † 1846 ) was a German-American technical utopian . Together with John August Roebling , he emigrated to Pittsburgh in 1831 .

John Adolphus Etzler

Life

In 1833 he published his most famous work, a brochure with the title The Paradise within the Reach of all Men (German 1981 under the title Das Paradies , Reutlingen: Schwarzwurzel-Verlag). It contained detailed, visionary plans for harnessing wind, water and sun for the benefit of mankind.

Influenced by Hegel and the utopian socialists , he believed that the technology of his time was sufficient to create a paradise on earth within a few years where there was enough for everyone. At times he managed to organize enough financial support to work on the realization of his visions. In particular, his hopes rested on a revolution in agriculture with the help of the "satellite", a versatile cultivation tool that he had patented. It was powered by ropes that carried wind energy from a stationary source. The device turned out to be impractical, and his plans to colonize the American tropics (in present-day Venezuela), some of which were poorly implemented, failed. People were killed in the process, and blame was inevitable. Etzler was devastated and disappeared from public life. Regardless of this, his idea of ​​a world that is freed from heavy physical work by automatons lives on.

Aftermath

Henry David Thoreau published a review of Etzler's Paradise in 1843 under the title Paradise (to be) Regained . The biologist and physician Jacob Bigelow was an ardent follower of Etzler and was strongly influenced by the ideas from Etzler's book Paradies .

Works

German

  • Paradise accessible to everyone, only through the forces of nature and the simplest of machines. After the second English edition. Heerbrandt and Thämel, Ulm 1844. ( hdl.handle.net full text).
    • New edition ud T. Paradise. 1st edition, Schwarzwurzel-Verlag, Reutlingen 1981, ISBN 3-922473-03-2 .
  • Emigration to the tropics. 1847.

English

  • The Paradise within the reach of all men, without Labor, by Powers of Nature and Machinery: An Address to all intelligent men, in two parts. 1833 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  • Machinery. 1833.
  • The New World or Mechanical System. 1841.
  • Description of the Naval Automaton, Invented by JA Etzler. 1841? 2 ?.
  • Dialogue on Etzler's Paradise: Between Messrs. Clear, Flat, Dunce, and Grudge. 1842.
  • Emigration to the Tropical World, for the Melioration of All Classes of People of All Nations. 1844.
  • Two Visions of JA Etzler. 1844.

Patents

literature

  • Steven Stoll: The Great Delusion. A Mad Inventor, Death in the Tropics, and the Utopian Origins of Economic Growth. Hill and Wang, New York 2009, ISBN 0-8090-5172-9 .
  • Alexis Madrigal: Powering the Dream. The History and Promise of Green Technology. Da Capo Press, 2011, ISBN 978-0-306-81977-3 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Henry David Thoreau, Lewis Hyde: The essays of Henry D. Thoreau . Macmillan, 2002, p. 321.
  2. ↑ Victor Ferkiss: Nature, Technology, and Society: The Cultural Roots of the Current Environmental Crisis . NYU Press, 1933, ISBN 0-8147-2617-8 , p. 80.
  3. ^ Henry David Thoreau: Paradise (to be) Regained. (Full text).
  4. ↑ technology. In: Encyclopédie de l'Agora.
personal data
SURNAME Etzler, John Adolphus
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Etzler, Johann Adolphus
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German-American technical utopian
DATE OF BIRTH 1791
PLACE OF BIRTH Mühlhausen / Thuringia
DATE OF DEATH uncertain: 1846
Place of death unsure: Caribbean