BULLETIN FOR THE HISTORY OF CHEMISTRY
Volume 51, 2026
Hahn, Christine, “Georg Ernst Stahl—The Origins and His Motivation for the Development of the Phlogiston Theory,” Bull. Hist. Chem., 2026, 51, 39-55.
https://doi.org/10.70359/bhc2026v051p039
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Abstract/Description: Georg Ernst Stahl was born in 1659, only a decade after the end of the Thirty Years' War, which left deep scars in society. He studied medicine from 1679 to 1684 at the University in Jena. Besides medicine he was very interested in chemical processes from his youth on, especially in metallurgy, fermentation, and dyeing. In 1687 Stahl became the personal physician of Johann Ernst III, Duke of Saxe-Weimar, and seven years later professor of medicine at the University of Halle, where he also taught chemistry. Stahl was strongly influenced by the pietism movement of the 17th century. He recognized that society can only grow out of the hardships left from the war if it builds up a strong economy. He thought this could only be possible if the craftsmen understand more deeply the chemical processes involved in their trades such as smelting. Stahl was very critical of the current theories of his time on the nature of matter, such as the definition of "elements" and the concept of "corpuscles." His goal was to eliminate vague alchemistic views and scholasticism from science. Influenced by Boyle, Becher, Kunckel, and other modern "chymists," he developed a new reaction theory originally derived from smelting processes; in his theory particles carrying the property of "combustibility" are transferred from one substance to another. He published his views for the first time 1697 in his Zymotechnia fundamentalis and called these particles phlogiston. Stahl's reaction theory was real progress for his time: it was the first overarching chemical theory. It became a dominant chemical concept in the 18th century in Europe for 50 years until with the deeper study of gases and the discovery of oxygen by Lavoisier, the phlogiston theory was repealed. However, with his theory Stahl laid the foundation for the modern view of oxidation-reduction processes and provided the necessary step for its development. Moreover, he even described many aspects of phlogiston that match the properties now recognized in electrons.