When Frankenstein invented Prussian Blue
One day in the late summer of 1815, a young English couple, travelling to Germany, sailed up the Rhine River until they reached a village overlooked by the ruins of an ancient castle. The construction was not interesting by itself, but had a romantic name: it was the castle of the Frankensteins. It was named after the family that inhabited the place for many years. Then it became the hospital where a man called Johann Konrad Dippel was born in 1673. He was so enigmatic that, two hundred years later, his name still resounded in the streets and taverns of the village.
Dippel from Frankenstein
Since he was a child, Dippel was expected to become a respected Protestant pastor, as his father was. He had studied theology and became a professor at the University of Strasbourg. However, more than religion, his life was dominated by the desire to buy the castle where he was born. It was such an obsession that he had started signing documents as “Dippel from Frankenstein”, despite the fact he had no kinship to the noble owners of the fortress. Aware that he would never earn enough to fulfil his dream with his university career, Dippel devoted himself to other disciplines: palmistry, occultism, and alchemy. Weird rumours began to be heard about him. Someone claimed to have seen him wandering at night in the cemeteries to steal corpses on which he conducted gruesome experiments, in the belief he could bring them back to life. Despite his disciples and colleagues’ admiration, his activities were not well regarded by the Strasbourg authorities. Dippel was expelled from the town, albeit he was officially charged with taking part in a quarrel that ended in bloodshed.
Back to a village near Frankenstein’s castle, Dippel tried his hand at turning lead into gold, but had no luck. So he directed his studies elsewhere.
Between the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, many alchemists devoted themselves to researching the curative properties of various substances to produce the elixir of life. By mixing the flesh, blood, and bones of different animals, Dippel distilled a dark, viscous, foul-smelling concoction, which he called Dippel’s Oil.
The alchemist achieved financial success by advertising the product as a remedy for all diseases, yet he could not afford his coveted castle. He even wrote to the Frankensteins proposing that they gave him the property in exchange for an Archanum Chymicum, perhaps an elixir of life. However, we do not know if he ever received a reply.
Marriage to a wealthy widow did not help him either. Although he claimed his ointment would make anyone a centenarian, Dippel died 61.
A year without summer
A year after hearing Dippel’s story, Percy and Mary, the two young Englishmen who visited Frankenstein’s castle in 1815, travelled to Europe again. In Switzerland, this time, guests of the poet Lord Byron and his physician, John Polidori. It was a cold and rainy summer, and the four of them spent most of their time indoors, reading ghost stories and discussing science and occultism. Then, Byron challenged his visitors to write a horror story. Mary had no ideas but, a few days later, she told Percy about a terrible nightmare from which she has just woken up. From this vision, Mary, Mary Shelley, wrote one of the most famous novels of all time, Frankenstein.
The story tells of a young man with a passion for alchemy which, by desecrating corpses in cemeteries, manages to create a frightening monster. John Polidori also took part in the challenge and wrote The Vampire, one of the first fictional works on this subject, which attributed to Byron for years. The young physician tried to clear up this misunderstanding but, overwhelmed by depression and debts, he ended his life with a potent poison: prussic acid.
Blue as death
Having become famous for the macabre experiments that led to his oil, few remember Dippel for a curious incident. In 1704, the alchemist worked in the laboratory of the pigments' manufacturer Diesenbach, in Berlin. In an attempt to create a shade of red, the two of them mixed some alkalis and instead obtained a particular shade of blue, which would become known as Prussian Blue.
Prussian Blue contains a compound called ferrocyanide. Experimenting with this substance, the German chemist Scheele diluted the ferrocyanide with sulphuric acid and obtained a mixture that, even in small doses, can produce paralysis of the heart and nervous system, leading to immediate death. This is prussic acid: a very effective way to commit suicide.
To know more
- Aynsley, E. E., e W. A. Campbell. «JOHANN KONRAD DIPPEL, 1673–1734». Medical History 6, n. 3 (July 1962): 281–286.
- G.E. Stahl. Experimenta, observationes, animadversiones ccc numero chymicae et physicae, 1731.
- Katie Carr. «Saints and Sinners: Johann Konrad Dippel». The Bulletin of the Royal College of Surgeons of England 95, n. 1 (January, 1st, 2013): 21–22.
- M. Mulvey-Roberts. Gothic Immortals: The Fiction of the Brotherhood of the Rosy Cross. Routledge Revivals. Taylor & Francis Limited, 2016.
- Miranda Seymour. Mary Shelley. Grove Press, 2000.
- Radu Florescu. In Search of Frankenstein: Exploring the Myths Behind Mary Shelley’s Monster. Robson, 1999.
