Ignatius, Baron Von, counsellor in the aulic chamber of the mint and mines at Vienna; of considerable eminence in the scientific world as a mineralogist and metallurgist, and a promoter of science; was born of a family that had the rank of nobility, at Karlsburg, in Transylvania, in 1742; and died in 1791. He was educated in a college of the Jesuits at Vienna, and afterwards entered into that order, but continued a member only during sixteen months. He then went through a course of study in law at Prague, and afterwards travelled into Germany, Holland, and France. On his return to Prague he engaged in the study of mineralogy.
The mines in the dominions of the house of Austria are very important, and give livelihood to a numerous population, more particularly in Hungary, Transylvania, and the Banat, and in Styria and Carniola. Idria produces mercury; Bohemia, tin and cobalt; and the other metals are obtained in sufficient abundance, not only to supply the internal trade of the nation, but also for export, either in the form of raw metal, or manufactured into various instruments. A revenue accrues to the public treasury from the mines in various ways. Some, as those of Schemnitz, Cremnitz, and Idria, are wrought on account of government. A tenth part of the produce of all mines wrought by private adventurers goes to government as a royalty. Government has a right of pre-emption of all metals, and an exclusive right of buying all gold and silver, the produce of the country, at a stated price. The annual quantity of gold and silver got from the mines of Hungary and Transylvania, and coined into money at the mint, during the reign of Maria Theresa, amounted in value to about L300,000 sterling. The mines in other parts of the dominions produced likewise a considerable quantity. Maria Theresa, seeing their importance, did much for the regulation of the mines; and, with a view of diffusing the knowledge of mineralogy amongst the nobles, many of whom were proprietors of mines, she had lectures on that science delivered in the universities. The administration of the revenue arising to government from this source is conducted by a board, composed of managers, overseers, assayers, and other officers, who are brought up in the knowledge of metallurgy and mineralogy, and reside at the mines. The operations of these functionaries are under the control of the aulic chamber of the mint and mines at Vienna, which keeps a set of books, in which all the transactions relative to the mines, and their situation and state, are digested and registered. An administration thus constituted offers a field of some preferment. Von Born chose to devote himself to this line of life, and was received into the department of the mines and mint at Prague in 1770.
About this time he met with an accident which nearly proved fatal. In the course of a mineralogical journey through Transylvania, he came to Felso-Banya, where the gang is rendered brittle and detached from the rock, by exposing it to the flames of wood heaped up in the mine and set on fire. Having gone into the mine soon after the combustion had ceased, and whilst the air was hot, and charged with arsenical vapour, and returning through a shaft which was occupied by a current of this vapour, he was deprived of sensation for fifteen hours, and after recovery continued long to suffer from a cough and general pain. Some time after this accident he was affected with violent colics, which a large dose of opium removed, but left him with a numbness of the lower extremities, and lame in the right leg. In the latter part of his life he was deprived of the use of his legs. All these calamities, which, however distressing, did not repress the activity of his mind, were considered as the consequences of the arsenical fumes he had inhaled at Felso-Banya.
One of the chief objects of his exertion was to introduce amalgamation in Hungary, in place of smelting and cupellation heretofore used in that country, for extracting silver from the ores. Pliny and Vitruvius speak of the use of mercury in collecting small disseminated particles of gold. On the arrival of the Spaniards in America, the Peruvians extracted the silver from the ore by smelting-furnaces, exposed to the wind on the tops of hills. The quicksilver mines of Guanabellica in Peru were discovered in 1563, and three years thereafter the Spaniards began to employ amalgamation. Alonzo Barba, an Andalusian, further improved the process by the addition of heat. Amalgamation had been practised in Europe for collecting silver and gold when they existed in visible metallic particles, but not in the case of ores where the gold and silver are invisible even with the aid of a microscope. Soon after its application to ores in America, an attempt was made by a Spaniard to introduce this operation for extracting silver from the ores in Bohemia, but without success. Gellert, Walerius, and Cramer, had written against the use of amalgamation when applied to ores. But Von Born seeing its advantages, particularly in the saving of fire-wood, which had become scarce in many parts of Hungary, set about examining the accounts given by authors of the different processes used in Mexico and Peru; repeated these processes experimentally, first in the small way, leaving out the ingredients that a knowledge of the chemical action of bodies showed to be unnecessary; and afterwards had the process carried on in the great way for several months near Schemnitz, under the inspection of Ruprecht. At this time he published his book On Amalgamation. It contains a history of amalgamation, and extracts from different authors describing the South American methods. This occupies nearly one half of the volume. He then gives the chemical theory of operation in its different steps, describes the method he had adopted at Schemnitz, and gives figures of the machinery employed.
Von Born met with much opposition in his attempts to introduce amalgamation. He says that some book-learned chemists, who never had handled a retort, and some mine overseers, when he first set about his experiments, declared that it was impossible to obtain silver by that method. After he had succeeded in getting silver from the ore publicly at Vienna, his detractors came forward with doubts and long calculations, showing that the process was inferior to that already in use. At last his process was tried successfully in the great way by orders of Joseph II. at Schemnitz; and then the calculators and doubters shrugged up their shoulders, saying, "It is only the old Spanish process of amalgamation."
He obtained from the emperor an order that his method should be employed in some of the mines belonging to government, and that he should receive a third part of the savings arising from the improvement during the first ten years, and four per cent. of this third part of the savings for the next twenty years.
He was a satirist, without possessing the qualities of style that are necessary to attain a high rank in that class of writers. The Stuats Perische, a tale, published without his knowledge in 1772, and an attack on Father Hell, the Jesuit, and king's astronomer at Vienna, are two of his satirical works. The satirical description of the Monastic Orders, written in form of an academic inaugural dissertation, entitled Monachologia, is generally ascribed to Von Born. In this piece the monks are described in the technical language of natural history. Von Born, however, was not deeply versed in the phraseology of Linnæus; and it is the opinion of some good judges of the subject, that the language at least was furnished by Herman, professor of medicine in the University of Strasburg, and author of the very ingenious work on the mutual affinities of animated beings, entitled Tabula Affinitatum Animalium Commentario illustrata. But although the technical language may not be Von Born's, the sentiments are such as he was known to profess; for the topic was so great a favourite with him, that he found room for invectives against the monks even in his book On Amalgamation. The monks in the Austrian dominions were not then in a situation to obtain redress against this lampoon; for it was published in 1783, when Joseph II. had suppressed many of the monasteries in different parts of his dominions, and transferred their property into his treasury, allowing but a scanty sum for the subsistence of the members of these communities.
Von Born was well acquainted with Latin, and the principal modern languages of Europe. He also possessed information in many branches of science not immediately connected with metallurgy and mineralogy, which were his professed pursuits. He had a good taste in the graphic arts, and his printed works are ornamented in a neat manner with vignettes illustrative of the subject.
His inclination led him to engage in politics; and, in particular, he took an active part in the political changes in Hungary. After the death of Joseph, the diet of the states of Hungary passed a great many acts, rescinding the innovations of that scheming ruler, which tended to force upon them German governors and laws, and even the German language. This diet conferred the rights of denizen on several persons of distinction who had been favourable to the cause of the Hungarians, and, amongst others, on Von Born. At the time of his death he was employed in writing an historical work in Latin, entitled Fasti Leopoldiani, probably relating to the prudent conduct of Leopold II., the successor of Joseph, towards the Hungarians.
He was of a middle size, slender make, and dark complexion; his eye was penetrating, and his countenance agreeable. His constitution was delicate even before his accident. He was a pleasant companion, and fond of society. He lived in splendour, and his house at Vienna was resorted to by scientific men of all nations. It is likely that his profits from the process of amalgamation were not considerable, at least they were not sufficient to put his fortune to rights, as his affairs at his death were in a state of insolvency. His family consisted of a wife and two daughters, who survived him. (See Townson's Travels in Hungary; and Pezzi, Ostreich Biographien, 1792.) The following is a list of his published writings, and of the works of others which he edited.
*Lythophylacium Borneanum*, 1775, Svo. This is a catalogue of his collection of minerals, which collection he afterwards sold to Mr Greville; and it forms a part of the magnificent Greville collection of minerals purchased from the heirs of that gentleman by parliament, and deposited in the British Museum. This catalogue is arranged according to the system of Cronstedt, with the nomenclature of Linnæus.
*Index rerum naturalium Musæi Cesarei Vindobonensis*. Pars. I. *Testacea*. Vindob. 1778, fol. maj. This splendid volume, which contains the description and figures of the shells in the museum at Vienna, was composed by order of the Empress Maria Theresa. The shells are arranged according to the method of Linnæus. Von Born's knowledge in this department of Natural History was not profound, so that he needed some assistance in composing the work. The shells only are described; of the animals to which they belong little is said. Joseph II. coming to the throne, and being fully occupied with a multitude of innovations and vast schemes for the aggrandisement of the house of Austria, the project of continuing the work, so as to form a description of the whole museum, was laid aside.
*On the Amalgamation of Ores containing Gold and Silver*, in the German language, published in 4to in 1786. Of this work something has been already said above. There is a translation of the work into English, by Raspe, a Hanoverian, once professor at Hesse-Cassel, and who afterwards resided in Britain, where he was sometimes employed as a viewer of mines.
*Catalogue méthodique et raisonné de la Collection des Fossiles de Mademoiselle Éléonore de Rüch*, à Vienne, Svo, 1790. This catalogue is drawn up so as to form a system of mineralogy, each species of mineral being carefully described, and arranged systematically. It was much esteemed, and cited by mineralogical writers in its time, but has been superseded, like other treatises, by more recent works, on account of the great additions that have been continually making to the science.
He edited the Jesuit Poda's description of the machines used in the mines of Schenitz.
*Ferber's Letters from Italy* were written to and edited by Von Born. Ferber and he were in habits of great intimacy; and Ferber, in return, published the letters that Von Born addressed to him during his excursion in Transylvania, &c. in 1770, entitled *Briefe über mineralogische gegenstände auf seiner reise durch das Temeswerter Banat, Siebenburgen, Ober und Nieder Hungarn*. Frankf. 1774. To this work is prefixed a well-engraved portrait of Von Born. There is an English version by Raspe, and a French one, with notes, by Monnet.
He lent his assistance to the first three volumes of a work published in German, entitled *Portraits of Learned Men and Artists, natives of Bohemia and Moravia*.
There are some papers of his in the *Abhandlungen der Böhmischer gesellschaft der Wissenschaften*.
The Transactions of a Private Society at Prague, in Bohemia, for the improvement of mathematics, natural history, and the civil history of the country, contains several papers written by him. He was the founder of this society.
He published an annual periodical work in German, entitled the *Philosophical Transactions of the Masons' Lodge of Concord at Vienna*. This masons' lodge, of which Von Born was the founder and patron, employed a part of its meetings in scientific pursuits. This, as well as other societies of a similar nature, was tolerated by Joseph II. for some time; but he afterwards imposed restraints that caused their dissolution. Von Born was also a zealous member of the Society of Illuminati; and when the Elector Palatine of Bavaria suppressed the masonic societies in his dominions, Von Born being a member of the Academy of Sciences at Munich, was required to declare, within eight days, whether he would withdraw from the masonic societies. He returned an answer, in which he praised the principles of the free-masons, and resigned his place in the academy, by sending back his diploma.
He wrote some articles in the German work published by Trebra, mine-director at Zellerfeld in the Hartz, entitled *System of Instruction in the Art of Working Mines*, 4to; also *Observations in support of the Metallization of the Alkalis*, in Crell's *Annals*, 1790, 1791. Ruprecht and Tondi thought at that time that they had reduced the alkalis and barytes to a metallic state, by the strong heat of a furnace urged by bellows; but it was afterwards found that the metallic substance thus obtained was phosphate of iron, proceeding from their crucibles and fluxes. Sir Humphry Davy was the first who obtained any of the alkaline class of bodies in a metallic state; and this he accomplished by the intense heat excited by a galvanic battery, many years after the time here spoken of.
*Relatio de Auriflegio Dacie Transalpina*, 1789, in the *Nova Acta Academiae Naturae Curiosorum*, tom. viii. p. 97. This is an account of the method employed in Transylvania in collecting gold from the sand of the rivers. The auriferous sand generally contains iron, attractable by the magnet. It is washed on a sloping board seven feet long and three feet broad, covered with a woollen cloth, having a dish-shaped cavity at the upper end, and inclined to the horizontal plane at an angle of twenty or twenty-five degrees. Only a very scanty livelihood can be gained by this employment. It is carried on by the poorer classes of the country people, and in some districts by bands of the people called gipsies. The king's collectors buy the gold from the gold-washers at a stated price, to the amount of more than 800 pounds weight annually. (n.n.)