“Away! Away to Falun!”: J. G. Gahn and the Application of Enlightenment Chemistry to Smelting

The paper discusses what happened when Enlightenment chemical reformers came face to face with the complex world of artisanal production. It investigateS what eighteenth-century chemists did in practice to gain access to—and authority over—the crafts. It argues that chemistry had to be construed as a useful applied science through a complex process of social negotiation. The case examined here shows how Johan Gottlieb Gahn, a student of Uppsala professor Torbern Bergman and a close collaborator of the chemist-apothecary Carl Wilhelm Scheele, tried to improve artisanal smelting practices in the Swedish mining town of Falun. The paper argues that his success—if it can be called such—depended more on skillfull negotiations with mine owners, artisanal smelters, academic chemists, and mining officials than on access to a superior (or even adequate) chemical theory. The first part of the paper considers the importance of patronage and demonstrates the nature of the contacts between university chemists and mining officials employed by the Swedish state. The second part of the paper discusses Gahn’s attempts to reform the smelting process at the great copper mine of Falun, drawing on his interactions with smelters, mine-owners, and his superiors to explore the related issues of knowledge, control, and social standing.