In existographies, Johann Becher (1635-1682) (IQ:170|#358) (GCE:#) (CR:18) was a German physician, chemist, economist, and philosopher, characterized a “man of original, but irregular, genius” (Ripley, 1861) (Ѻ) also “inventive, erudite, and entirely self-educated” (Cassell, 1893) (Ѻ), noted for his 1669, Paracelsus model advancing, terra pinguis theory (see: entropy models) of combustion.
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| Image from the 1725 edition of Becher's autodidactic proclaiming treatise Psychosophia, in which he posits that anyone can learn all the sciences by reflection on the nature of the own soul, or something along these lines. [3] |
“All solid sub-stances, according to Becher, consist of three types of earth: terra fluida is the mercurial element, which contributes fluidity and volatility; terra lapida is the solidifying element, which produces fusibility or the binding quality; and the third element is terra pinguis (literally 'fatty earth'), which gives material substance its oily and combustible qualities. This is the principle of inflammability. Terra pinguis worked as follows: a piece of wood originally consists of ash and terra pinguis; when the wood is burnt, the terra pinguis is released, leaving the ash. Becher's three elements are a recognizable development of the mercury, salt and sulphur theory proposed by Paracelsus and the alchemists. The notion of terra pinguis is not exactly original either. But the time was ripe for such an idea.”— Paul Strathern (2001), Mendeleyev’s Dream [5]
“Chemists are a strange class of mortals, impelled by an almost insane impulse to seek their pleasure among smoke and vapor, soot and flame, poisons and poverty, yet among all these evils I seem to live so sweetly, that [I'd die before I'd] change places with the Persian King.”— Johann Becher (c.1675), Publication [1][5]; possibly a Democritus paraphrase
