Scheele’s notes are very difficult to read, even for an expert. They were mostly
written in German, but after many years in Sweden, Scheele’s language became less
standard, and this in combination with many abbreviations and Scheele’s peculiar
handwriting means that few have tried to decipher them.
The first systematic study of Scheele’s papers was made by Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld (1832–1901) for the 150th anniversary of Scheele’s birth in 1892 [47].
Nordenskiöld is now best remembered as an arctic explorer and the first to cross the
Northeast Passage in 1878–1879, but he was primarily a mineralogist and his father
was an acquaintance of Berzelius and had met Gahn. Nordenskiöld was assisted in
his work by Elin Bergsten from the National Swedish Archive who made the actual
deciphering. Nordenskiöld’s work, published in Swedish [47] and German [48],
includes many of Scheele’s letters, including those to Bergman (stored at Uppsala
University Library), Gahn, Gadolin, Wilcke, Bergius and Wargentin and a selection
of laboratory notes (stored at The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences). Nordenskiöld made some alterations of the text to make it more accessible, he has, for
example, replaced all chemical symbols with the old chemical names he found
appropriate. During his work, Nordenskiöld was the first to prove Scheele’s priority
over Priestley for the discovery of oxygen (Chap. 21).
For the 200th anniversary of Scheele’s birth in 1942, the Royal Swedish
Academy of Sciences published a collection of Scheele’s laboratory notes edited by
physicist Carl Wilhelm Oseen [49]. This work consists of two volumes, one with
facsimiles and one with transcriptions; it was not actually sold to the public but
presented to selected institutions; still copies can occasionally be found in antiquarian book shops. An important reason for the publication was to ensure that the
manuscripts would survive the war. This was a very real danger; the notebooks of
John Dalton were, for example, destroyed during the bombing of Manchester in
World War II. The title “Manuscripts 1756–1777” was criticised [50], as Scheele
did not move to Sweden until 1757 and the oldest preserved documents originate
from his time in Malmö. Also, the volume contains no manuscripts written after
1775. In addition to changing chemical symbols with names, Oseen corrected
grammatical irregularities and spelled out abbreviated words.
A selection of papers known as “the Brown Book” (Fig. 28.4) since it was
bound in brown leather boards in 1829 was left unexplored as it was regarded
particularly difficult to read until Uno Boklund, after 10 years of struggle, published
it in facsimile with transcriptions and comments in 1961 [51] with an English
edition appearing in 1968 [52]. Boklund concluded that the Brown Book consisted
of manuscripts (letter concepts, notes and concepts for papers) written after Scheele
moved to Köping mixed with some older manuscripts that Scheele had picked out
from a collection of papers he had brought with him from Uppsala. Boklund
estimated that Scheele’s laboratory journals contain around 15,000–20,000
experiments.
384
28 The End of the Story
written in German, but after many years in Sweden, Scheele’s language became less
standard, and this in combination with many abbreviations and Scheele’s peculiar
handwriting means that few have tried to decipher them.
The first systematic study of Scheele’s papers was made by Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld (1832–1901) for the 150th anniversary of Scheele’s birth in 1892 [47].
Nordenskiöld is now best remembered as an arctic explorer and the first to cross the
Northeast Passage in 1878–1879, but he was primarily a mineralogist and his father
was an acquaintance of Berzelius and had met Gahn. Nordenskiöld was assisted in
his work by Elin Bergsten from the National Swedish Archive who made the actual
deciphering. Nordenskiöld’s work, published in Swedish [47] and German [48],
includes many of Scheele’s letters, including those to Bergman (stored at Uppsala
University Library), Gahn, Gadolin, Wilcke, Bergius and Wargentin and a selection
of laboratory notes (stored at The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences). Nordenskiöld made some alterations of the text to make it more accessible, he has, for
example, replaced all chemical symbols with the old chemical names he found
appropriate. During his work, Nordenskiöld was the first to prove Scheele’s priority
over Priestley for the discovery of oxygen (Chap. 21).
For the 200th anniversary of Scheele’s birth in 1942, the Royal Swedish
Academy of Sciences published a collection of Scheele’s laboratory notes edited by
physicist Carl Wilhelm Oseen [49]. This work consists of two volumes, one with
facsimiles and one with transcriptions; it was not actually sold to the public but
presented to selected institutions; still copies can occasionally be found in antiquarian book shops. An important reason for the publication was to ensure that the
manuscripts would survive the war. This was a very real danger; the notebooks of
John Dalton were, for example, destroyed during the bombing of Manchester in
World War II. The title “Manuscripts 1756–1777” was criticised [50], as Scheele
did not move to Sweden until 1757 and the oldest preserved documents originate
from his time in Malmö. Also, the volume contains no manuscripts written after
1775. In addition to changing chemical symbols with names, Oseen corrected
grammatical irregularities and spelled out abbreviated words.
A selection of papers known as “the Brown Book” (Fig. 28.4) since it was
bound in brown leather boards in 1829 was left unexplored as it was regarded
particularly difficult to read until Uno Boklund, after 10 years of struggle, published
it in facsimile with transcriptions and comments in 1961 [51] with an English
edition appearing in 1968 [52]. Boklund concluded that the Brown Book consisted
of manuscripts (letter concepts, notes and concepts for papers) written after Scheele
moved to Köping mixed with some older manuscripts that Scheele had picked out
from a collection of papers he had brought with him from Uppsala. Boklund
estimated that Scheele’s laboratory journals contain around 15,000–20,000
experiments.
384
28 The End of the Story