Johann Friedrich Böttger was a teenaged street magician who was unlucky enough to be hold earnestly by a very crucial human beings . That Isle of Man lock Johann up for years — during which the nestling made a breakthrough that shifted the balance of power between not just state , but continents .
Johann Böttger did n’t have a bad start in life . He was gestate to well - to - do goldsmith parents , lived in Berlin , and was apprenticed to a very tolerant pharmacist . Böttger was a chemist , and decided to do chemistry at all hours and with all kinds of chemicals . He had specify his sights on no less a process than turning lede and other valueless metals into Au . With enough practice under his belt , he half - convince the people in his neighborhood that he had really fulfill the human action .
Then he bring it a step further . Böttger , still a teenager , adjudicate to begin putting on a street show . He gather a crowd around him and roll silver piece in front of them ; with a few deal gesture and some chemical solutions , he transformed these silver piece into a single gold piece . He convinced the crowds , and they convinced the king .
King Augustus the Strong earned his nickname by break horseshoes with his hands , and by his accomplishment at “ fox - tossing , ” which is exactly what it sounds like . His conduct with poor Böttger could have earned other nicknames , like Augustus the Gullible , Augustus the Deeply In Debt , and Augustus the Short - temper . Böttger found himself in the hands of a king who was growing raring with the fact that his imprisoned alchemist did not create the gold he call for to devote off his debt .
Böttger was allowed various observational apparati , but none of them stand up up to the warmth of his despairing attempt to make gold , so he shift the focal point of his experimentation to attempt to make hotness - validation remains . This help him receive his way to Ehrenfried Walter von Tschirnhaus , who also ferment for the king . Between the two of them , they fall up with a harder , fine clay , that was scar - proof while still being delicate . They came up with porcelain . Porcelain was , in many ways , more of import than gold . atomic number 79 could be ascertain anywhere , but porcelain follow only from China . It was a signaling of prestige , and Europeans ( and presently , colonials ) were despairing to get their hand on it .
Böttger and Tschirnhaus managed , at last , to work out that porcelain was produced by blending a white clay , called kaolin , and a specific type of feldspar . They figured out how hot the furnace used to produce porcelain had to be , and they managed to discover the right way to glaze the porcelain pots . After seven geezerhood , Böttger handed something worth its exercising weight in gold to the queen and won ( a modified amount of ) exemption .
The discovery of porcelain did n’t stop Europe ’s need for trade with China , as there were many more inventions , goods , and resources that Europeans were desperate to get their hands on . Still , the European discovery of porcelain not only changed Europe ’s relationship with China , but its internal balance of power . The race to duplicate Böttger and Tschirnhaus ’s results was on , as was the race to acquire territorial dominion fat in kaolin and feldspar . And all because a street magician made a king conceive he could make amber from atomic number 47 .
Anyone want to lock in up David Blaine ?
[ ViaThe Disappearing Spoon , Johann Friedrich Böttger , The First Porcelain Produced in Europe ]
ChemistryScience
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