19
Scheele in Köping
The pharmacy in Köping, a small trading town in the Västmanland province, was
established in 1759 by Hindrich Pascher Pohl (1730–1775), an immigrant from
Pomerania, just like Scheele [1]. In 1769, Pohl lost his wife of five years, Maria
Molin and their two children. He remarried in 1771 to Sara Margaretha Sonneman,
daughter of Emanuel Sonneman, a merchant and member of the city council. The
Nordic museum in Stockholm still preserves a harrow and a lever for moving stones
invented by Sonneman. Pohl died on April 12, 1775, aged 43. This left his widow
Margaretha, aged only 24, in a difficult situation. She had inherited the ownership
of the pharmacy and the valuable license to run the pharmacy in Köping, but in
order to run a pharmacy, an apothecary exam was required. To get any income from
the pharmacy, she had four alternatives: a common solution was to marry an
apothecary, but she could also sell the pharmacy, rent it out, or hire a provisor, who
would run the pharmacy for her. Margaretha Pohl chose the latter alternative and
advertised for an apothecary. For Scheele, this was a good opportunity to become
his own master. Working as an apprentice, he could never expect to save enough
money to buy a pharmacy. He applied and was hired on a one-year contract. He
moved to Köping sometime between July 15 and 20, 1775. Scheele signed his
contract on July 21, and on July 28, he applied for respite from the requirement of
an apothecary exam. It was not uncommon at the time for an apprentice to wait with
the expensive exam until he was in charge of a pharmacy. Given Scheele’s reputation and his prominent friends in Collegium medicum, the respite was probably
granted him without hesitation. Gahn, writing to Bergman, was worried that all the
new duties would prevent Scheele from performing research [2].
The choice to leave Uppsala was probably not easy for Scheele. Bergman wrote
to Gahn that “Now Scheele has left. It did cost us both to separate: he is in charge of
the pharmacy in Köping and may eventually fall for the widow”. This seemed to be
a probable long-term solution, provided that Margaretha was satisfied with
© 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_19
253
Scheele in Köping
The pharmacy in Köping, a small trading town in the Västmanland province, was
established in 1759 by Hindrich Pascher Pohl (1730–1775), an immigrant from
Pomerania, just like Scheele [1]. In 1769, Pohl lost his wife of five years, Maria
Molin and their two children. He remarried in 1771 to Sara Margaretha Sonneman,
daughter of Emanuel Sonneman, a merchant and member of the city council. The
Nordic museum in Stockholm still preserves a harrow and a lever for moving stones
invented by Sonneman. Pohl died on April 12, 1775, aged 43. This left his widow
Margaretha, aged only 24, in a difficult situation. She had inherited the ownership
of the pharmacy and the valuable license to run the pharmacy in Köping, but in
order to run a pharmacy, an apothecary exam was required. To get any income from
the pharmacy, she had four alternatives: a common solution was to marry an
apothecary, but she could also sell the pharmacy, rent it out, or hire a provisor, who
would run the pharmacy for her. Margaretha Pohl chose the latter alternative and
advertised for an apothecary. For Scheele, this was a good opportunity to become
his own master. Working as an apprentice, he could never expect to save enough
money to buy a pharmacy. He applied and was hired on a one-year contract. He
moved to Köping sometime between July 15 and 20, 1775. Scheele signed his
contract on July 21, and on July 28, he applied for respite from the requirement of
an apothecary exam. It was not uncommon at the time for an apprentice to wait with
the expensive exam until he was in charge of a pharmacy. Given Scheele’s reputation and his prominent friends in Collegium medicum, the respite was probably
granted him without hesitation. Gahn, writing to Bergman, was worried that all the
new duties would prevent Scheele from performing research [2].
The choice to leave Uppsala was probably not easy for Scheele. Bergman wrote
to Gahn that “Now Scheele has left. It did cost us both to separate: he is in charge of
the pharmacy in Köping and may eventually fall for the widow”. This seemed to be
a probable long-term solution, provided that Margaretha was satisfied with
© 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_19
253