6 Biographical Account of J. G. Gahn. [July, 



tion and talents easily procured for him a partnership in some 

 extensive works at Stora Kopporberg ; where he settled as 

 superintendant. He had not remained long in this situation 

 when an opportunity occurred, requiring all the experience and 

 skill of which he was master. The contest for the independence 

 of America had just about this period commenced, and as the 

 application of copper to the sheathing of ships had then been 

 but recently introduced, it may be remembered that some of our 

 great merchants entered into extensive speculations on the arti- 

 cle of copper, purchasing up the whole which was then in the 

 country, and that many of them realized princely fortunes, by 

 the prodigious advance at which they disposed of the commo- 

 dity. The demand was great and sudden, the ordinary supply 

 comparatively inadequate to the emergency of the case, and the 

 scarcity and price of the copper rose proportionally. In circum- 

 stances such as these, the smelters at Fahlun received an order 

 for sheet copper and copper bolts for the sheathing of ships, of 

 so great an extent, and called for by so early a day, that the 

 men of greatest experience among them conceived its exe- 

 cution to be chimerical. Gahn came forward in this emergency, 

 and undertook, at his own risk, to execute the order within the 

 time prescribed. He was completely successful ; thus at once 

 supplying the wants of another country, and greatly raising the 

 reputation of his own. It may well be imagined that his firmness 

 in coming forward on this crisis, though opposed to all the rest 

 of his profession, and his success in proving that he had not over- 

 rated his abilities, must have been highly gratifying to himself, 

 and could not fail to bear his reputation through the country. 



From the year 1770, when Gahn first settled at Fahlun, down 

 to 1785, he took a deep interest in the improvement of almost 

 all the chemical works in that place and the neighbourhood. In 

 conjunction with the proprietors of the copper mine, he esta- 

 blished manufactories of sulphur, sulphuric acid, and red ochre. 

 From the skill of the projector, these immediately became supe- 

 rior to their rivals, on account of the excellence of the articles 

 prepared in them, and they constituted for many years a source 

 of great emolument to their proprietors. But although he thus 

 directed his peculiar attention to the works under his own care, 

 his improvements upon the whole economy of the smelting and 

 refining of the ores, were calculated to be a source of riches to 

 the country, not merely to the individual ; and Gahn accordingly, 

 in a liberal and generous spirit, fostered the amendment of the 

 processes in every chemical work in his neighbourhood. It may 

 be said indeed with truth, that there were few chemical manu- 

 factories, and in particular that there was not a single work con- 

 nected with the smelting of copper, in the vicinity of Fahlun, 

 which did not receive a thorough reformation, either from his 

 scientific knowledge, or from his practical skill. Among his 



