12 - Review of Silberschlag's work: Theory of the fireball that appeared on 23 July 1762 (1764)

Summary

EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION

Johann Esaias Silberschlag was born in Aschersleben, a small town in Prussia, about 35 km south of Magdeburg, on 16 November 1721 (or 1716). After studying theology in Halle and teaching science at the school he had attended previously as a student, he was appointed a pastor of churches in and around Magdeburg. In 1760, he was elected a non-resident member of the Berlin Academy of Sciences on the basis of his studies of ancient catapults. When King Frederick II (Frederick the Great) was temporarily displaced from Berlin to Magdeburg for a time during the Seven Years War, Silberschlag was noticed by important members of the court and subsequently offered a position in Berlin after their return. He then occupied a number of influential positions in second-tier vocational schools (Realschulen) and in administration in Berlin, where he died on 22 November 1791. He published a number of works in applied subjects (such as hydraulic and mechanical engineering) as well as in theology (on Mosaic creation). His Theorie der am 23. Juli erschienenen Feuerkugel [Theory of the Fireball that appeared on 23 July 1762] was published in Magdeburg in 1764. In addition, the Silberschlag crater on the moon is named after him.

Kant's “Review of Silberschlag's Work: Theory of the Fireball that appeared on 23 July 1762” was published anonymously on 23 March 1764 in the fifteenth issue of the Königsbergsche Gelehrte und Politische Zeitung. Kant was established as its author by a letter from his friend, Johann Georg Hamann, to J. G. Lindner on 16 March 1764. While it is uncertain exactly what motivated Kant to respond to this work in this way, the review is clearly positive.