BECKMANN (JOHN), during nearly forty-five years Professor at Gottingen, was born at Hoye, in the electorate of Hanover, in 1739. His father, who was receiver of taxes, and postmaster in this town, occupied himself in the cultivation of a small piece of land, and appears to have inspired his son with a taste for agriculture. However, alt the honour of his education belongs to his mother, who, having be come a widow when young Beckmann was hardly seven years old,- sent him, in his fifteenth year, to the school at Stade, placing him under the care of Gehlen. Being intended for the clerical function, he repaired in 1759 to Gottingen, to finish his studies there ; but whether the advice of Hellmann, who testified much kindness towards him, produced a change in his plans ; or that the instructions of the mathematicians, Kaestner and Tobias Mayer, had greater attractions for him than theology, he aban doned the career on which he had entered, in order to devote himself entirely to the natural scien ces, and principally to the application of these scien ces to economical purposes. His first studies were not without their use to him ; he derived from them a methodical habit of mind, and .a considerable knowledge of languages, which, in the sequel, as sisted him greatly in the pursuits to which he owed his celebrity. In 1762, having lost his mother, and with her his former means of subsistence, he accept ed the offer of Busching, who invited him to come and fill the situation of Professor of Natural Philo sophy in the Lutheran Academy at St Petersburgh, of which this celebrated geographer had at that time the direction ; but Busching quitting the institution shortly alter, and dissensions having arisen among the superintendents, Beckmann gave up his place, and made a journey through Sweden to acquire a detailed knowledge of the mines of this country, and of the manner of working them. Linnaeus having received him hospitably at Upsal, he prolonged his stay there, and availed himself of the friendship as well as the instructions of this naturalist.. In 1766, the governors of the University of Gi:ittingen ap pointed him, on the recommendation of Busching, Professor to this celebrated establishment, of which he became one of the principal ornaments. His mind, entirely directed to the practical uses of human knowledge, had early conceived the idea of an academical classification of the arts and different branches of economy, both political and domestic, which had hitherto been left to routine and acci dent, He composed, to serve him as a guide in this course of instruction, Treatises on Rural Econo my—On Policy—On Finance—On Commerce, and other departments of practical knowledge ; which, though since carried to a higher degree of perfec tion, owed to Beckmann their first elements, and their first scientific form. His Lectures, which had at the time the recommendation of novelty, were at tended by the flower of the studious youth, whom the most civilized nations of Europe sent to the University of Gottingen ; and it may be added, that the most distinguished statesmen and public func tionaries of Germany were among his auditors. He was in the habit of accompanying them himself into the workshops, to give them a knowledge of the dif ferent processes and handicrafts, of which he had explained to them the theory. He never relin quished his public lectures ; but his private studies took" insensibly a direction altogether historical, the motives for which it will not be uninteresting to point out.
It is considered at Gottingen, that a Professes cannot be excused from explaining the progress of the science, which he teaches, in all the civi lized nations of Europe at the same time. Any one, who, two years after the appearance of a work of importance in his department, published in any country of Europe whatsoever, should not have read and analyzed it in order to refute or else enrich his own observations from it, would not regard himself as a worthy successor to the chair of Haller, of Mosheim, of Gessner, and Michaelis. Beckmann in particular, having studied at Gottingen at a time when the example of these great men dictated the law and gave the tone there, was determined to ad vance in a line with his age, and not to be ignorant of any of the steps which were making by the nu merous and extensive sciences which furnished the foundation and the subjects of these practical prin ciples. But these steps were the steps of a giant ;
and whatever might be his ardour, or his love of stu dy, how could he be supposed to read and judge of all the important works which appeared from the year 1770, on chemistry theoretical and practical, on physics, natural history, and mathematics ? His disappointment ended in chagrin, and gave him a degree of anger against the new ideas, methods of reasoning, and materials, which changed the face, enlarged the limits, and facilitated the study of these sciences. His course of lectures, turning on ly on practical matters, suffered little from this cir cumstance ; but feeling that his writings would be accused of remaining behind the progress of the sciences which were the subject of them, he di rected the researches with which he wished to oc ' =my the attention of the public to the history of arts and trades, and employed, in the illustration of this subject, the materials to which he had access in the Gottingen library, assisted by general infor mation, a mind peculiarly fitted for this kind of study, and by indefatigable industry. It is to these labours that we owe the Notices of Beckmann on the history of discoveries in the most common arts of life ; for instance, the history of watch-making, of distillation,sof almanacs, of insurance, of the light ing of streets, of the original country and migra tions of the fruits and flowers in our gardens, of the common materials for dyeing, of bellows, of fire arms, of mills, of grinding corn, of carriages, of different parts of our dress, of different household utensils, of a multitude of machines and mecha. nical contrivances employed in common trades, and of most of the products of industry ; such as the p. thering of saffron, the preparation of alum, ing-press, of fulling-mills, of book-keeping, of the dig. ging of' turf, of gazettes and newspapers, of stamped paper, of' the pearl-fishery, of pavings, of chimneys, of collections of natural curiosities, of milestones, of pharmacy, of quarantine, of painted paper, of ruffles, of milking, of pawn-brokers, of looking glasses and glass in general, of soap, of musical glasses, of watchmen, of ices to eat, of the anatomy of plants, of exchange, of pens for writing, of instru ments of husbandry, of fireworks, of the working of pewter, of the procuring of amber, of indigo, of gilding, of weathercocks, of furs, of steel, of gar dening, of crayons, of knives and forks, of corks, of sal-ammoniac, of hops, of weaving, of lotteries, of hospitals for orphans and foundlings, of infir maries, of lazarettoes, of fighting-cocks, of salt petre, of gunpowder, and aquafortis, &c. &c. We should form to • ourselves a very false idea of these .Notices, if we expected to find in them only some general account of these arts, and of the different manner of practising them, used in different times and places. Beckmann traces their first germ from the most remote periods of antiquity ; he follows their developement through the obscurity of the middle ages ; and exhibits their latest improvements amongst the civilized nations of modern Europe, with a patience and a depth of learning which can only be equalled by the sagacity and the variety of knowledge displayed in his researches. We have thought it would be interesting to the reader to see a list of the most remarkable among these notices, in the order in which they were published. They make five volumes in octavo, published at Leipsic from 1783 to 1805 ; and will furnish the most inva luable materials to the individual, or to any society of men of letters who may hereafter venture to un dertake the general history of the origin and pro gress of the mechanic arts, which important a branch in that of civilization. It is almost needless to add, that the most exact references to original au thorities accompany each article, and give it a new value in the eyes of those who are unwilling to take things upon trust, or may be desircaui to push the in quiries of the author still farther.