Johann Friedrich Henckel (1 August 1678 – 26 January 1744) was a Prussian physician, chemist, metallurgist, and mineralogist. He taught chemistry and mineralogy at the Bergakademie Freiberg where his students included
A. S. Marggraf,
M.V. Lomonosov and
Dmitri Vinogradov.
Henckel was born in
Merseburg
Merseburg () is a town in central Germany in southern Saxony-Anhalt, situated on the river Saale, and approximately 14 km south of Halle (Saale) and 30 km west of Leipzig. It is the capital of the Saalekreis district. It had a diocese ...
, the son of physician Johann Andreas and Anna Dorothea. After schooling at Merseburg Cathedral School (1685–94) he studied theology and medicine at Jena from 1698 after which he became a physician in Dresden. He received a doctorate in 1711 and moved to Freiberg where he began to collect minerals along with
Christlieb Ehregott Gellert. In 1728 he was elected into the
Leopoldina Academy
The German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina (german: Deutsche Akademie der Naturforscher Leopoldina – Nationale Akademie der Wissenschaften), short Leopoldina, is the national academy of Germany, and is located in Halle (Saale). Founded ...
. He moved back to Dresden in 1730 and began to work on minerals. He examined the chemistry of pyrites and believed in the formation of minerals through various processes such as crystallization and thereby rejected instantaneous Creation.
Henckel was also a specialist on tuberculosis.
References
External links
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Flora Saturnizans (1755)
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Kleine minerologische und chymische Schriften (1756)
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Pyritologia (1757, English translation)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Henckel, Johann Friedrich
1678 births
1744 deaths
German chemists