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CHRISTOPHER POLHEM . 613
the throne of Sweden on the death of his father, Adolphus Frederic,11
in 1771. In 1772 he headed a successful revolution, by which the
power ofthe Swedish nobility was broken, and an absolute monarchy was
re-established . He was assassinated in 1792 by Ankarström , or accord
ing to others by Ribbing, who acted in concert with a conspiracy
among the nobility.
NOTE 13.
SAMUEL SANDELS.
Samuel Sandels was the son of the Rev. Mr. Sandel, one of the
clergymen in the Swedish colony near Philadelphia, in the United
States of America. He was born in 1724, and was intended by his
father for the ministry, but this he abandoned. He studied chemistry
and mineralogy, and entered the mining service of his country.
In Stockholm he lived at the house of Swedenborg’s brother
in-law, Lars Benzelstierna, the Counsellor of Mines (see Note 9).
Benzelstierna took a great interest in the young man, and through
his influence he was speedily promoted in the College of Mines. In
1754 he became secretary, in 1759 assessor, and in 1762 counsellor
of mines, in which capacity he delivered his eulogium on Swedenborg,
our Document 4. In 1772 he was ennobled, when his name was changed
to Sandels. The Swedish Biographical Dictionary greatly extols
his private character, and speaks of him as a man of great practical
usefulness to his country, in other respects besides in his official employ
ment in the College of Mines. He interested himself especially in
relieving the distress of the miners at Fahlun during the monetary
crisis between 1763 and 1769, and in promoting the construction of
canals. His son Johan August was a field -marshal of Sweden,
who greatly distinguished himself in the war against Russia in 1808
and 1809, and afterwards in the war against Napoleon in Germany.
He became a baron, and afterwards a count.
NOTE 14.
CHRISTOPHER POLHEM.
Christopher Polhem , the “ great Swedish Archimedes," as Sweden
borg, in the preface to his Dedalus Hyperboreus, first styled him .
Before his elevation to the rank of nobility he was called Polhammer
or Pålhammar, but when he discovered, in 1716, that his ancestors
in Hungary were called von Polheim, he called himself for a short
time Polheimer. He was born at Wisby, in Gothland, where his
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