science · 08 December 1818 · 206 years ago
death
Died 8 Dec 1818 at age 73 (born 19 Aug 1745).
Swedish mineralogist and crystallographer who was born in an iron-ming town, and followed mining as a career. At the copper mine in Falun, he improved smelting methods and the use of by-products. He discovered manganese (1774), and also selenium. Gahn assisted his friend Carl Wilhelm Scheele (discoverer of chlorine) in finding phosphoric acid in bones. His limited published work included essays on the balance and use of the blowpipe as a convenient analytical tool. During the American Revolutionary War, one of his companies supplied copper for sheathing ships. Gahnite, a dark green to brown or black mineral, (ZnAl2O4), also called zinc spinel was named after Gahn.
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