Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - Sidor ...
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
Below is the raw OCR text
from the above scanned image.
Do you see an error? Proofread the page now!
Här nedan syns maskintolkade texten från faksimilbilden ovan.
Ser du något fel? Korrekturläs sidan nu!
This page has never been proofread. / Denna sida har aldrig korrekturlästs.
of imparting his knowledge to others; we are told of a
simple instrument-maker whom he enabled by unwearied
teaching to construct the finest chemical and optical
instruments.
For his native country and the social welfare of the
community he had a warm heart; in his conversation he
was unassuming and had the modesty of a true scholar.
He exercised hospitality with an open hand, and many were
the strangers who visited him. Among others the famous
English chemist Thomson1 called on him during his
journey through Sweden. He says in his journal:
“ Probably Gahn is the man in Sweden now possessed of
the greatest store of knowledge.”
Johann Gottlieb Gahn died on the 8th of December,
1818. His library was bought by the State and presented
to the Mining College at Falun.1 2
His brother, Henry Gahn, was born in 1747. After
having received his first training at the High School of
Vesterås, he studied medicine at Upsala and became
Licentiate of Medicine in 1770. He then undertook the
customary journey through the Continent to see the
hospitals and medical institutions of other countries. At
Göttingen he stayed the whole winter and part of the
summer, and then by way of Leyden he visited England.
Here the offer reached him to accompany Cook on his
voyage round the world, but he declined, fearing that his
regular course of studies would be too much interrupted.
From London, where he worked at St Thomas’s Hospital,
he went to Edinburgh, whence he returned in 1772 with
1 Thomas Thomson.
2 The very day before his death Gahn had spent twelve hours before his
writing-desk, to work out detailed rules for the working of the factory of
Gripsholm (near Stockholm). A certain oxide of metal, dark green and
unaffected by acids or alkalis, received the name of gahnit after him.
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
