1824.] Biographical Account of J. G. Gahn. 5 



months before his death, and was inserted, with his permission, 

 in the same work of Berzelius to which we have just alluded. 



Such are a few of the discoveries and inventions of Gahn ; but 

 although these may, perhaps, be the chief means of spreading 

 his name abroad, they do not form the character by which he is 

 best known at home. To have a just idea of the man, one must 

 be informed, that the sciences, however much the subject of his 

 fond pursuit, were not at any time his principal occupation, but 

 merely formed an agreeable relaxation, in which he occasionally 

 indulged, when he could spare a few moments from his more 

 serious avocations. Let us now trace the course of his life as a 

 man of the world, and as a man of business, and glance at the 

 public duties he had to discharge as a member of the represen- 

 tative body of Burghers in Sweden, and we shall then feel how 

 surprising is his eminence as a man of science. 



On the death of his father, he was left a young man, in narrow 

 circumstances, which compelled him to direct his immediate and 

 almost exclusive attention to the practice of mining and metal- 

 lurgy. His mode of mastering his profession was characteristic 

 of the man. He was not satisfied, like many others, with a mere 

 theoretic knowledge of its processes, but determined to acquire 

 a thorough acquaintance with them by personal experience. He, 

 therefore, associated with the ordinary miners, dwelt with them, 

 and accommodated himself to their habits, and took an active 

 share in all their labours ; nor did he relinquish this mode of 

 life, until it ceased to make additions either to his knowledge, or 

 to his experience. 



In the year 1770, he defended at Upsala an academic thesis, 

 entitled " Remarks on Regulations for an improved System of 

 Management in Iron Founderies ; " and in the course of the same 

 year, he acquitted himself in the customary examinations 

 respecting his metallurgic knowledge, with an ability which 

 received the unqualified admiration of the judges. A few 

 months after this, he was commissioned by the College of Mines 

 to institute a course of experiments with a view to improve the 

 method of melting copper at Fahlun. The consequence of this 

 investigation was a complete regeneration of the whole system, 

 so as to gain much time and save much expense by the change. 

 Till this period, the old reverberatory furnace was everywhere 

 in use, in which a large proportion of the fuel consumed was 

 altogether wasted. Gahn recommended a new construction, by 

 which this superfluous expenditure is avoided, it was immediately 

 adopted, and continues at this day to be universally employed. 



From the intimate acquaintance which he possessed with 

 every subject connected with mining or with metallurgy, it may 

 be imagined that Gahn now felt a strong desire to have the 

 direction of a smelting work of his own. This, however, re- 

 quired a capital which he had not at command ; but his repute* 



