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 Mikhail Vasilyevich Lomonosov (; , ; – ) was a Russian polymath, scientist and writer, who made important contributions to literature, education, and science. Among his discoveries were the atmosphere of Venus and the law of conservation of ...

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 a physician, Johann Andreas and his wife, 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. In 1728, he was elected into the Leopoldina Academy. 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 thus rejected the theory of instantaneous creation.

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* ''Flora Saturnizans'' (1755) * ''Kleine minerologische und chymische Schriften'' (1756) * ''Pyritologia'' (1757, English translation) {{DEFAULTSORT:Henckel, Johann Friedrich 1678 births 1744 deaths German chemists Scientists from Dresden