Ignatius Born, knight

* Gyulafehérvár, December 26, 1742 – † Vienna, July 24, 1791 / mineralogist, geologist, political writer, court councilor ; ; He completed his school studies in Sibiu, and then in Vienna from 1755. In 1759 he joined the Society of Jesus, but left after a year and studied law in Prague. After that, he made a tour of Western Europe (Germany, the Netherlands, France, Spain) to deepen his knowledge of natural sciences, metallurgy and mining, and then, returning to Prague, he dealt with natural sciences and mining science. In 1769, he was appointed mining councilor of Lower Hungary for Selmecbánya. In 1770 he became a judge of the Prague Mint and Mining Office, and traveled throughout Hungary and Transylvania, where he visited mines and mineral deposits. In Felsőbánya, he suffered from gas poisoning in one of the mines, which was later aggravated by lead poisoning in Vienna. He suffered the consequences for the rest of his life. From 1772 he worked as a mining councilor in Prague, and in his free time he occupied himself with his mineral collection and herbarium. From 1779 he was a court councilor at the Vienna Mining Court Chamber. ; He later traveled throughout the country several times for scientific research and published his results in German, English and French. In 1776, Maria Theresa commissioned him to organize the imperial natural history collection in Vienna. The first international geological and mining congress was convened at Szklenófürdő near Selmecbánya in 1786 on his initiative. He was elected a member of several foreign academies (St. Petersburg, Göttingen) for his merits. In metallurgy, he distinguished himself above all by perfecting the processing of gold and silver ores with mercury: sintering and amalgamation. As a chemist, he opposed alchemy. ; He also worked on the dissemination of natural science knowledge, demanding more extensive school education. He was the editor and collaborator of several journals, and in 1783 he launched the Physikalische Arbeiten der einträchtigen Freunde in Wien. magazine, in whose columns the mining engineer Ferenc József Müller (1742–1825) and Antal Ruprecht (Szomolnok) debated a new mineral in which Müller detected tellurium, but did not recognize that it was a previously unknown element. Born was also interested in social issues, and in one of his works he criticized the monastic orders. In addition to his scientific activities, he was also actively involved in the intellectual public life of Vienna and became a member of the Freemasonry movement. In 1770, he was admitted to the "Three Crowned Columns" lodge in Prague. He was also a member and one of the leaders of the Illuminati under the name Furius Camillus. During the reign of Joseph II, in 1782, he became the leader of the Freemasonry lodge called "The True Unity". It was probably as a Freemason that he met Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, who wrote The Magic Flute. in his opera, he modeled Ignác Born as Sarastro. ; ; His main works: ; Briefe über mineralogische Gegenstände, 1774, ; Über das Anquicken der gold- und silberhältingen Erze, Rohsteine, Schwarzkupfer ; und Hüttenspeise, 1786, ; Métallurgie ou l’ amalgamation des minerals, méthode extraire par le mercure, 1787.