1
Introduction
Torbern Bergman and Carl Wilhelm Scheele were among the most successful
chemists of their time—a short period of about 15 years in the 1770s and 1780s.
They both died young at the peak of their careers. Their work was closely connected, yet their collaboration and friendship was very unlikely. Scheele was the
enthusiast who became absorbed by chemistry as a young boy and devoted his life
to chemistry entirely for the pleasure. He had no academic education and seems to
have had little interest in other subjects than chemistry. Bergman, on the other hand,
had a broad academic background; initially inspired by the biological work of
Linnaeus he studied insects, then he turned to astronomy and the rapidly evolving
field of electricity. Without any prospects of becoming professor in physics, he
finally turned to chemistry simply because a professorship became available. He
was soon knighted and was well integrated in the network of European scientists.
A friendship and collaboration between an apothecary assistant like Scheele and a
professor like Bergman was indeed uncommon in the hierarchic eighteenth century.
Although Scheele has been underestimated as a theoretician, his strength was
definitely in experimental chemistry. As an experimenter he was curious, honest
and very observant. For Scheele, it was the work in the laboratory that was
important. It was certainly in the lab with his crucibles and flasks that he was most
happy. For Scheele, writing publications was not a means of achieving fame and
high social status. Putting so much devotion into his experiments he could not,
however, let anyone else take the credit. Anyone who has published a scientific
paper will probably agree that it is a pleasant feeling to see the final publication
after a lot of hard work. For Bergman, who had become a chemist for entirely
different reasons, it was the search for the larger contexts that was important.
Whether this was in the field of chemistry, physics, or biology was perhaps not
crucial. His skill was to organise information and to rationalise results, using
Newton and Linnaeus as inspiration. Thus, for Bergman, it was probably not so
important to carry out the actual experiments, and he probably entrusted his students to carry out a large portion of the laboratory work. Scheele would only ask for
© 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_1
1
Introduction
Torbern Bergman and Carl Wilhelm Scheele were among the most successful
chemists of their time—a short period of about 15 years in the 1770s and 1780s.
They both died young at the peak of their careers. Their work was closely connected, yet their collaboration and friendship was very unlikely. Scheele was the
enthusiast who became absorbed by chemistry as a young boy and devoted his life
to chemistry entirely for the pleasure. He had no academic education and seems to
have had little interest in other subjects than chemistry. Bergman, on the other hand,
had a broad academic background; initially inspired by the biological work of
Linnaeus he studied insects, then he turned to astronomy and the rapidly evolving
field of electricity. Without any prospects of becoming professor in physics, he
finally turned to chemistry simply because a professorship became available. He
was soon knighted and was well integrated in the network of European scientists.
A friendship and collaboration between an apothecary assistant like Scheele and a
professor like Bergman was indeed uncommon in the hierarchic eighteenth century.
Although Scheele has been underestimated as a theoretician, his strength was
definitely in experimental chemistry. As an experimenter he was curious, honest
and very observant. For Scheele, it was the work in the laboratory that was
important. It was certainly in the lab with his crucibles and flasks that he was most
happy. For Scheele, writing publications was not a means of achieving fame and
high social status. Putting so much devotion into his experiments he could not,
however, let anyone else take the credit. Anyone who has published a scientific
paper will probably agree that it is a pleasant feeling to see the final publication
after a lot of hard work. For Bergman, who had become a chemist for entirely
different reasons, it was the search for the larger contexts that was important.
Whether this was in the field of chemistry, physics, or biology was perhaps not
crucial. His skill was to organise information and to rationalise results, using
Newton and Linnaeus as inspiration. Thus, for Bergman, it was probably not so
important to carry out the actual experiments, and he probably entrusted his students to carry out a large portion of the laboratory work. Scheele would only ask for
© 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_1
1