8
Scheele in Malmö
After leaving Gothenburg in 1765, Scheele, now aged 22, was hired by Peter
Magnus Kjellström (1725–1803) at the Split Eagle (Fläkta Örn) pharmacy in
Malmö (Fig. 8.1). The exact date of his arrival in Malmö is not known, but as he is
listed in Malmö’s register for 1766, he must have arrived in Malmö at the latest in
November 1765. In the tax register, his salary is reported to be 100 silver dalers a
year. At the time, Malmö had approximately 3,000 citizens, so it was, by modern
standards, a rather small city. Linnaeus visited Malmö in 1749, and gave the
following description:
[Malmö] has large houses, mainly of half-timber with tiled roofs, except 40 [stone]
buildings, and broad streets. The square [i.e. where Scheele worked] is one of the largest in
the country, 200 steps long and equally broad, on all sides surrounded by tall trees, lime,
horse-chestnut and walnut trees. On the square a [water pump] is built opposite Corps de
Guardie. Hereto water is directed through underground gutters from the Pil dam, […] south
of the city and from [the pump] the water is redirected through [wooden tubes] to most
blocks in the city. [1]
Scheele’s new master was born in Karlshamn and received his pharmaceutical
training from Bauch in Gothenburg 1740–1746, so one can assume that it was
through Bauch that Scheele came in contact with Kjellström. The Split Eagle
pharmacy had been founded by Thomas Arendt in 1731, but the name Split Eagle
was not documented until 1782. Arendt’s son, Fredrik Christoffer, took his
apothecary exam in 1742, but later went bankrupt, and Kjellström came into possession of the pharmacy by marrying Fredrik Christoffer’s sister. Kjellström grew
medicinal plants on a large scale, had a large natural historical collection and is said
to have been interested in chemistry [2], so the Split Eagle was a good and natural
choice for Scheele. Kjellström seem to have encouraged Scheele in his, probably
costly, chemical studies and to the best of our knowledge, Scheele was never
accused of neglecting his work. Kjellström, who outlived Scheele, wrote to Wilcke
many years later that Scheele never trusted a piece of information in a book until he
had time to test it himself:
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
A. Lennartson, Carl Wilhelm Scheele and Torbern Bergman, Perspectives on the
History of Chemistry, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-49194-9_8
99
Scheele in Malmö
After leaving Gothenburg in 1765, Scheele, now aged 22, was hired by Peter
Magnus Kjellström (1725–1803) at the Split Eagle (Fläkta Örn) pharmacy in
Malmö (Fig. 8.1). The exact date of his arrival in Malmö is not known, but as he is
listed in Malmö’s register for 1766, he must have arrived in Malmö at the latest in
November 1765. In the tax register, his salary is reported to be 100 silver dalers a
year. At the time, Malmö had approximately 3,000 citizens, so it was, by modern
standards, a rather small city. Linnaeus visited Malmö in 1749, and gave the
following description:
[Malmö] has large houses, mainly of half-timber with tiled roofs, except 40 [stone]
buildings, and broad streets. The square [i.e. where Scheele worked] is one of the largest in
the country, 200 steps long and equally broad, on all sides surrounded by tall trees, lime,
horse-chestnut and walnut trees. On the square a [water pump] is built opposite Corps de
Guardie. Hereto water is directed through underground gutters from the Pil dam, […] south
of the city and from [the pump] the water is redirected through [wooden tubes] to most
blocks in the city. [1]
Scheele’s new master was born in Karlshamn and received his pharmaceutical
training from Bauch in Gothenburg 1740–1746, so one can assume that it was
through Bauch that Scheele came in contact with Kjellström. The Split Eagle
pharmacy had been founded by Thomas Arendt in 1731, but the name Split Eagle
was not documented until 1782. Arendt’s son, Fredrik Christoffer, took his
apothecary exam in 1742, but later went bankrupt, and Kjellström came into possession of the pharmacy by marrying Fredrik Christoffer’s sister. Kjellström grew
medicinal plants on a large scale, had a large natural historical collection and is said
to have been interested in chemistry [2], so the Split Eagle was a good and natural
choice for Scheele. Kjellström seem to have encouraged Scheele in his, probably
costly, chemical studies and to the best of our knowledge, Scheele was never
accused of neglecting his work. Kjellström, who outlived Scheele, wrote to Wilcke
many years later that Scheele never trusted a piece of information in a book until he
had time to test it himself:
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
A. Lennartson, Carl Wilhelm Scheele and Torbern Bergman, Perspectives on the
History of Chemistry, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-49194-9_8
99