"Artificial Suns from Drebbel to Balduin and the Discovery of Phosphorus"

Time: 12:00 - 1:00 p.m.

Place: 6th Floor Conference Room, Chemical Heritage Foundation

At the turn of the seventeenth century, Cornelis Drebbel (1572-1633) built a spectacular chymically driven perpetual motion machine that followed the motions of the sun. Central European supporters of a magnetic, vital philosophy saw the machine as evidence that celestial forces could be attracted into machines artificially. Drebbel's storied career spurred the contrivance of chymical microcosms and artificial suns in Central Europe through the seventeenth century. This "magnetic" account of Drebbel continued in the works of Christian Adolph Balduin, F.R.S., who built his own artificial sun, and other contemporary German producers of phosphorus.