Background
Karl Karsten was born on November 26, 1782, in Bützow, Germany. He was the second son of Franz Lorenz Karsten and Elisabeth Katharina Charlotte Engel.
University of Rostock, Rostock, Germany
At the age of seventeen Karsten matriculated at that university to study law and medicine. His friendly relations there with the later renowned botanist Heinrich Link, who was then lecturing on the natural sciences, awakened in Karsten an interest in physics and chemistry. He later earned his doctoral degree with the dissertation De affinitate chemica.
1813
Karsten was awarded the Iron Cross on White Ribbon in 1813.
1845
Karsten was awarded the 2nd class Red Eagle Order with oak leaves in 1845.
University of Rostock, Rostock, Germany
At the age of seventeen Karsten matriculated at that university to study law and medicine. His friendly relations there with the later renowned botanist Heinrich Link, who was then lecturing on the natural sciences, awakened in Karsten an interest in physics and chemistry. He later earned his doctoral degree with the dissertation De affinitate chemica.
Karsten was awarded the 3rd class Red Eagle Order.
metallurgist mineralogist scientist author
Karl Karsten was born on November 26, 1782, in Bützow, Germany. He was the second son of Franz Lorenz Karsten and Elisabeth Katharina Charlotte Engel.
Karsten received his early education in Bützow and later in Rostock, where his father was a professor of political economy at the University of Rostock. At the age of seventeen, Karsten matriculated at that university to study law and medicine. His friendly relations there with the later renowned botanist Heinrich Link, who was then lecturing on the natural sciences, awakened in Karsten an interest in physics and chemistry.
After attending the university for only one year, Karsten published Vollständiges Register über Green's neues Journal der Physik. He was called to Berlin in 1801 to collaborate in editing Scherer's Journal while continuing his medical and scientific studies. He devoted himself with special zeal to mineralogy and metallurgy and from 1805 to 1810 published with S. Weiss a German edition of René Haüy’s Traité de minéralogie. At about the same time, he independently produced a translation of Beaume’s chemical system. He later earned his doctoral degree with the dissertation De affinitate chemica.
After Karsten earned his doctoral degree and parted with Scherer, he gained experience at ironworks in Brandenburg and Upper Silesia. On the basis of several excellent field reports, Karsten received a ministerial commission in 1804 to erect a plant for extracting coal tar at the metalworks in Gleiwitz (now Gliwice, Poland); the plant was the first of its kind in Germany. At the end of 1804, he was accepted in the government service as a Referendar (assistant mining inspector). The following year he was promoted to Assessor (associate inspector) and was entrusted with the technical supervision of all Upper Silesian metallurgical works. He was named Bergrat (mining inspector) in 1810 and in 1811 Oberhüttenrat (senior foundry inspector) and Oberhüttenverwalter (senior foundry manager) for Upper and Lower Silesia. Karsten won special recognition for his part in the growth of the Silesian zinc industry. He constructed the Lydognia metalworks where, for the first time, zinc was prepared directly from calamine.
In 1815 Karsten was asked to provide his expert opinion on the Siegerland ore mines situated in territory conquered during the Napoleonic wars, in the interests of establishing the boundary between Prussia and Nassau. He subsequently returned to Breslau for a short time, leaving in 1819 to accept an offer as Geheimer Bergrat, a prestigious post in the ministry of the interior in Berlin. In 1821 he became Geheimer Oberbergrat (privy councilor). In this position, he successfully administered the entire metallurgical and salt-mining industry in Prussia for thirty years.
A prolific writer, Karsten published a German edition (1814-1815) of Rinman’s history of iron, Geschichte des Eisens, preparatory work for Karsten’s own Handbuch der Eisenhüttenkunde. Two years later he published Grundriss der Metallurgie und der metallurgischen Hüttenkunde', its brilliant success led Karsten to expand it into a large handbook which appeared in 1831 as System der Metallurgie. His literary activity was not confined to metallurgy, however. In 1828 he produced an important sourcebook of mining law in his Grundriss der deutschen Bergrechtslehre. In 1843 his Philosophie der Chemie appeared and in 1846-1847 his excellent two-volume Lehrbuch der Salinenkunde.
Karsten also established a reputation as an editor of the mining and metallurgical journal Archiv für Bergbau und Hüttenwesen, the title of which was changed in 1829 to Archiv für Mineralogie, Geognosie, Bergbau und Hüttenkunde. Many of his shorter papers were published in this journal.
Karsten resigned in December 1850 after forty-six years in government service. The two years preceding his death were occupied with scientific research and political activities, for Karsten was at this time a deputy in the Prussian Upper Chamber.
Karsten was a member of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina and the Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences.
On August 1, 1808, Karsten married Adelaide Rosenstiel, the daughter of Friedrich Philipp Rosenstiel who served as the director of the Royal Porcelain Factory in Berlin. They had three sons and one daughter; two of their sons became prominent mineralogists.