Gahn
Encyclopedia
Gahn is a Swedish
family, one member of which was ennobled in 1809 with the name Gahn af Colquhoun. The family has claimed an unverified origin in a Scottish family Colquhoun, a claim which was confirmed 1781 in a letter by the Lord Lyon King of Arms
, but on dubious grounds, as later research has shown. A claim that the Swedish noble family Canonhielm is a branch of this family has also been shown to lack genealogical substance.
Notable members of the family include:
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
family, one member of which was ennobled in 1809 with the name Gahn af Colquhoun. The family has claimed an unverified origin in a Scottish family Colquhoun, a claim which was confirmed 1781 in a letter by the Lord Lyon King of Arms
Lord Lyon King of Arms
The Lord Lyon King of Arms, the head of Lyon Court, is the most junior of the Great Officers of State in Scotland and is the Scottish official with responsibility for regulating heraldry in that country, issuing new grants of arms, and serving as the judge of the Court of the Lord Lyon, the oldest...
, but on dubious grounds, as later research has shown. A claim that the Swedish noble family Canonhielm is a branch of this family has also been shown to lack genealogical substance.
Notable members of the family include:
- Johan Gottlieb GahnJohan Gottlieb GahnJohan Gottlieb Gahn was a Swedish chemist and metallurgist who discovered manganese in 1774.Gahn studied in Uppsala 1762-1770 and became acquainted with chemists Torbern Bergman och Carl Wilhelm Scheele...
(1745-1818), chemist and mineralogist who discovered manganeseManganeseManganese is a chemical element, designated by the symbol Mn. It has the atomic number 25. It is found as a free element in nature , and in many minerals...
in 1774, and after whom the mineral gahniteGahniteGahnite, ZnAl2O4, is a rare mineral belonging to the spinel group. It forms octahedral crystals which may be green, blue, yellow, brown or grey. It occurs in Falun, Sweden where it is found in pegmatites and skarns, contact metamorphic rocks...
was named. - Henrik Gahn (1747-1816), physician and student of LinnaeusCarolus LinnaeusCarl Linnaeus , also known after his ennoblement as , was a Swedish botanist, physician, and zoologist, who laid the foundations for the modern scheme of binomial nomenclature. He is known as the father of modern taxonomy, and is also considered one of the fathers of modern ecology...
, who pioneered the use of vaccineVaccineA vaccine is a biological preparation that improves immunity to a particular disease. A vaccine typically contains an agent that resembles a disease-causing microorganism, and is often made from weakened or killed forms of the microbe or its toxins...
against smallpoxSmallpoxSmallpox was an infectious disease unique to humans, caused by either of two virus variants, Variola major and Variola minor. The disease is also known by the Latin names Variola or Variola vera, which is a derivative of the Latin varius, meaning "spotted", or varus, meaning "pimple"...
in Sweden in 1803. - Carl Pontus Gahn, ennobled with the name Gahn af Colquhoun (1759-1825), military officer who participated in the war in Finland in 1788-1789, the campaign in Norway in 1808 and the invasion of Norway in 1814. He became major-general in 1814 and president of the Martial Court of Appeals (Krigshovrätten) in 1824.
- Henrik Gahn (1820-1874), chemist and industrialist, who invented the first antisepticAntisepticAntiseptics are antimicrobial substances that are applied to living tissue/skin to reduce the possibility of infection, sepsis, or putrefaction...
s to be used in Sweden, which he named aseptin and amykos. In 1867 he founded the company Henrik Gahns AB, sold in 1964 to Barnängen (the latter was bought and is now a brand owned by Henkel Norden ABHenkelHenkel AG & Co. KGaA is an multinational company headquartered in Düsseldorf, Germany.The company operates in three business areas: Home Care , Personal Care ,...
). The brand Gahns was sold to a different company and is still used for hygiene products in Sweden and the other Nordic countriesNordic countriesThe Nordic countries make up a region in Northern Europe and the North Atlantic which consists of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden and their associated territories, the Faroe Islands, Greenland and Åland...
. - Henrik Gahn (1820-1901), industrialist and politician, member of the Burghers' Estate of the Swedish parliamentParliament of SwedenThe Riksdag is the national legislative assembly of Sweden. The riksdag is a unicameral assembly with 349 members , who are elected on a proportional basis to serve fixed terms of four years...
1856-1866, and of the First Chamber of the new two-chamber parliament 1874-1892. - Wolter Gahn (1890-1985), architect, modernist pioneer and co-author of the Swedish modernist manifesto acceptera ("accept!", intentionally with a lowercase initial, 1931). He was one of the two men behind the new Government Chancery building (Kanslihuset) in StockholmStockholmStockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...
, completed in 1936, but designed earlier and in a classical style adapted to the context of the Stockholm Old TownGamla stanGamla stan , until 1980 officially Staden mellan broarna , is the old town of Stockholm, Sweden. Gamla stan consists primarily of the island Stadsholmen. The surrounding islets Riddarholmen, Helgeandsholmen, and Strömsborg are officially part of, but not colloquially included in, Gamla stan...
.