Johann Christian Wiegleb

Who was Johann Christian Wiegleb?

Johann Christian Wiegleb was a notable German druggist and early innovator of chemistry as a science.

From 1748 to 1754 he served as an apprentice-apothecary in Dresden, later settling as a pharmacist in his hometown of Langensalza. In 1779 he founded a private institution for the training of druggists. He was notably the teacher of Johann Friedrich August Göttling.

He conducted studies of alkaline salts in plants, on the combustion of chalk and argued against the possibility of transmutation of elements. He also made contributions towards the discovery of oxalic acid.

He was the author of many works in the field of chemistry. His numerous studies on the chemical nature of minerals were usually published in Lorenz von Crell’s Chemische Annalen. His work on general chemistry was translated into English and published as "A general system of chemistry : theoretical and practical. digested and arranged, with a particular view to its application to the arts. taken chiefly from the German of M. Wiegleb".