1824.] Biograpluwt Account of J. G. Gtifm. 7 



mechanical contrivances, we may mention here an ingenious 

 piece of machinery erected under his superintendence at Awesta, 

 for the purpose of laminating metals, by making them pass 

 between cylindrical metallic rollers. 



Such eminence as this could not fail to procure celebrity to 

 Gahn, and conduct so generous on his part destroyed every 

 trace of jealousy. Fame, in general, brings with it envy, 

 because men too often become proud and assuming, in propor- 

 tion as they become famous. As these qualities, however, 

 formed no part of Gahn's character, it is believed that few men 

 have more enjoyed that mixture of attachment and respect 

 which is called esteem ; and testimonies of this flowed in upon 

 Gahn from every quarter. 



In the year 1780, the Royal College of Mines, as a testimony 

 of their sense of the value of Gahn's improvements in the general 

 economy of their whole system, and of his successful discharge 

 of every duty which had devolved upon him, presented him 

 with a gold medal of merit. In 1782, he received a royal patent 

 as mining master. In 1784, he was elected a member of the 

 Roval Academy of Sciences ; and, in the course of the same 

 year, he was appointed assessor in the Royal College of Mines, 

 in which capacity he officiated as often as his other avocations 

 permitted him to reside in Stockholm. 



Nor can we here omit another event which happened to 

 Gahn in the course of this year, since, if it be of little note to 

 him as a public character, it influenced the whole of his domes- 

 tic happiness. It was in the year 1784 that his marriage took 

 place, when he espoused Anna Maria Bergstrom, with whom 

 afterwards during the long period of thirty-one years, he enjoyed 

 a life of uninterrupted domestic happiness. The fruits of this 

 marriage were a son and two daughters. 



We have already adverted to the demands which were made on 

 the Fahlun smelters for copper for the sheathing of ships. All 

 copper, however, is not equally suitable for this end, ami indeed 

 some kinds of this metal which might serve excellently for 

 almost any ordinary purpose, if applied to this, undergo corrosion 

 from the action of the sea waler to such an extent, as to make 

 them quite unfit to afford the protection which alone renders 

 them valuable. Out of these circumstances a case arose, in 

 which the information and ability of Gahn found an extraordi- 

 nary opportunity for their exercise, and proved of signal service 

 to his country. 



In the year 1773, he had been elected a chemical stipendiary 

 to the Royal College of Mines, and he continued t<i hold this 

 appointment till the year IS 14. Dining the whole of this 

 period, his information on every subject connected with chemis- 

 try was confessedly so superior to that of his associates, thai 

 the solution of almost every difficult problem, remitted to the 



