Ercker, Lazarus

SUBJECT AREA: Metallurgy, Mining and extraction technology

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b. c.1530 Annaberg, Saxony, Germany

d. 1594 Prague, Bohemia

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German chemist and metallurgist.

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Educated at Wittenberg University during 1547–8, Ercker obtained in 1554, through one of his wife's relatives, the post of Assayer from the Elector Augustus at Dresden. From then on he took a succession of posts in mining and metallurgy. In 1555 he was Chief Consultant and Supervisor of all matters relating to mines, but for some unknown reason was demoted to Warden of the Mint at Annaberg. In 1558 he travelled to the Tyrol to study the mines in that region, and in the same year Prince Henry of Brunswick appointed him Warden, then Master, of the Mint at Goslar. Ercker later moved to Prague where, through another of his wife's relatives, he was appointed Control Tester at Kutna Hora. It was there that he wrote his best-known book, Die Beschreibung allfürnemisten mineralischen Ertz, which drew him to the attention of the Emperor Maximilian, who made him Courier for Mining and a clerk of the Supreme Court of Bohemia. The next Emperor, Rudolf II, a noted patron of science and alchemy, promoted Ercker to Chief Inspector of Mines and ennobled him in 1586 with the title Von Schreckenfels'. His second wife managed the mint at Kutna Hora and his two sons became assayers. These appointments gained him much experience of the extraction and refining of metals. This first bore fruit in a book on assaying, Probierbüchlein, printed in 1556, followed by one on minting, Münzbuch, in 1563. His main work, Die Beschreibung, was a systematic review of the methods of obtaining, refining and testing the alloys and minerals of gold, silver, copper, antimony, mercury and lead. The preparation of acids, salts and other compounds is also covered, and his apparatus is fully described and illustrated. Although Ercker used Agricola's De re metattica as a model, his own work was securely based on his practical experience. Die Beschreibung was the first manual of analytical and metallurgical chemistry and influenced later writers such as Glauber on assaying. After the first edition in Prague came four further editions in Frankfurt-am-Main.

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Bibliography

Die Beschreibung allfürnemisten mineralischen Ertz, Prague. 1556, Probierbuchlein.

1563, Munzbuch.

Further Reading

P.R.Beierlein, 1955, Lazarus Ercker, Bergmann, Hüttenmann und Münzmeister im 16. Jahrhundert, Berlin (the best biography, although the chemical details are incomplete).

J.R.Partington, 1961, History of Chemistry, London, Vol. II, pp. 104–7.

E.V.Armstrong and H.Lukens, 1939, "Lazarus Ercker and his Probierbuch", J.Chem. Ed.

16: 553–62.

LRD