BECKMANN, Johann, the author of the History of Inventions, was born in 1739 at Hoya in Hanover, where his father was postmaster and receiver of taxes. His mother, who was left a widow before he was seven years of age, sent him to school at Stade; and in 1759 he repaired to the University of Göttingen with the intention of studying theology, which, however, he soon abandoned in favour of natural science. The death of his mother in 1762 having deprived him of his former means of support, he accepted, at the offer of Busching, the professorship of natural history iu the Lutheran Academy, St Petersburg. This office he soon relinquished, and journeyed through Sweden, where he inspected the manner of working the mines, and formed the acquaintanceship of Linnaeus at Upsala. In 1766 he was appointed professor at Göttingen. There he lectured on various arts and on political and domestic economy, and was in the habit of leading his students into the workshops that they might acquire a practical as well as a theoretical knowledge of different processes and handicrafts. While thus engaged he determined to trace the history and describe the present condition of each of the arts and sciences on which he was lecturing, being perhaps incited by the Bibliothecoe of Haller. But even Beckmann’s industry and ardour were unable to overtake the amount of study necessary for this task. He therefore confined his attention to several practical arts and trades; and to these labours we owe his Notices on the History of Discoveries in the Common Arts of Life,— a work in which he relates the origin, history, and recent condition of the various machines, utensils, &c., employed in trade and for domestic purposes. In 1772 Beckmann was elected a member of the Royal Society of Göttingen, and he ...