Johann Conrad Dippel
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Johann Konrad Dippel (August 10, 1673 on Frankenstein Castle (Bergstrasse)-April 25, 1734 at Wittgenstein Castle near Bad Laasphe) was a German pietist theologian, alchemist and physician.
He studied theology, philosophy and alchemy at the University of Giessen obtaining a master degree in theology in 1693. He published many theological works under the name Christianus Democritus, most of them are still preserved. He led a very adventurous life, and often got into trouble because of his disputed opinions (and because of money).
On Frankenstein Castle he dealt in alchemy. Working with nitroglycerin he destroyed a tower, but also detected the medicinal use of it. He invented and sold an animal oil known as Dippel's Oil. In 1704 in Berlin, he and the manufacturer Heinrich Diesbach applied this oil instead of potassium carbonate in producing red dyes. To their surprise they obtained a blue dye "Berliner Blau", also called "Preussisch Blau" or "Prussian blue". Together they founded a factory in Paris.
His connection to the Castle Frankenstein (near Darmstadt/Germany) is evident as his birthplace and he signed letters with the addendum Frankensteinensis. But the idea that he was influential to Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein remains controversial. Local historians believe that the legends told in the villages surrounding the castle were transmitted by Jacob Grimm to the translator of Grimm's fairy tales, Mary Jane Clairmont, the stepmother of Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin. In 1814, on their way to Lake Geneva, Mary, her stepsister Claire Clairmont and Percy Bysshe Shelley are said to have visited castle Frankenstein.
[edit] References
This article incorporates text from the public domain 1907 edition of The Nuttall Encyclopaedia.
[edit] External links
- Dippel, Johann Conrad (New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge)
