Quotes:Reichenbach, Baron Karl von

Zirkoff, Boris

Reichenbach, Baron Karl von. German chemist and industrialist, b. at Stuttgart, Feb. 12, 1788; d. at Leipzig, Jan. 22, 1869. Father was Court Librarian in his native city. Educated in the local Gymnasium and the Univ, of Tübingen where he studied natural sciences and national economy, becoming Doctor of Philosophy. As a youth of sixteen, founded a secret society for the carrying out of a dream, namely, the organizing of a German state on some South Sea Islands; was reported to Napoleon’s police and incarcerated. After his release, he visited various iron works in Germany and France, and eventually turned to the manufacture of iron, building factories in Billingen and Haufach. This industrial activity expanded considerably after he formed a partnership with Count Hugo zu Salm in 1821. Factories were erected in Blansko (Mähren), in Lower Austria and Galicia. In 1839, von Reichenbach was granted the title of Baron by the King of Württemberg. In later years he lived in the Castle of Reisenberg, near Vienna, but moved to Leipzig in 1867.

In the realm of chemistry, von Reichenbach is responsible for a great deal of painstaking research, and the discovery of both Paraffin and Creosote, as well as a number of coloring materials. He is best known, however, for his many-sided research of what he called Od, an electro-magnetic force emanating from most people, but especially from a particular type of sensitive. This research was in many ways epoch-making. As could be expected, he was laughed at and ridiculed by established materialistic science, but his views and conclusions have been upheld in later years by more progressive scientists, and are, as H.P.B. conclusively shows, in harmony with very ancient views concerning man and his latent powers.

Reichenbach wrote a considerable number of essays and books on the subject of Od, among which mention should be made of the following: Unterschungen über die Dynamide Magnetismus, Electrizität, Wärme und Licht in ihren Beziehungen zur Lebenskraft (Braunschweig, 1850, 2 vols.), translated by Dr. William Gregory of Edinburgh as Researches on Magnetism, etc. (London, 1850); a basic work which deserves careful study by students of the Ancient Wisdom.—Odisch-magnetische Briefe (Stuttgart, 1852).— Der sensitive Mensch, etc. (Stuttgart, 1854, 2 vols.).—Somnambulism and Cramp. Transl. from the German by John S. Hittell (New York: Calvin Blanchard, 1860).

Source: Boris de Zirkoff, «H. P. Blavatsky Collected Writings», vol. 2, p. 541

Reichenbach, Baron Karl von (1788-1869). *Untersuchungen Uber die Dynamide Magnetismus, Electrizitàt, Warme und Licht in ihren Beziehungen zur Lebenskraft, Braunschweig, 1850, 2 vols.; Engl, tr. by Dr. Wm. Gregory of Edinburgh as Researches on Magnetism, etc., London, 1850. See Vol. II, p. 541, for futher data.

Source: Boris de Zirkoff, «H. P. Blavatsky Collected Writings», vol. 3, p. 523

Reichenbach, Baron Karl von (1788-1869). *Researches in Magnetism. Tr. by Dr. Wm. Gregory, London, 1850. See Vol. II, p. 541, for biographical data.

Source: Boris de Zirkoff, «H. P. Blavatsky Collected Writings», vol. 4, p. 664