Ambrose Godfrey died in 1741. He left three sons, Boyle (named after Sir Robert), Ambrose and John. The son Ambrose was the inventor. He and his brother John took over the chemicals business, and also supplied galenicals to apothecaries. Ambrose wrote The Compleat Course of Chymistry in 1744, but it was never published (a copy exists in the museum's collections). Although they went bankrupt in 1746, Ambrose started the business up again in partnership with his nephew, a third Ambrose Godfrey.
However, he also invented a fire extinguisher. It worked by suffocating the fire and therefore putting it out, an idea credited to a Zachary Greyl. A miniature wooden barrel was filled with fire-extinguishing material. Then gunpowder was inserted in a pewter sphere at the centre of the centre of the barrel, and fitted with a fuse, pipe and guides to the top. When the fuse was fired, the explosion forced the fire upwards. It was first tested on Hampstead Heath in 1723. A report about a spate of fires in London in 1727 said:
"I hear that the famous machines or Fire Watches, invented by Mr Godfrey the great Chymist.displayed their wonderful effects, and prevented the progress of that furious element [the fire]."
However, Godfrey's extinguisher appears only to have been used for a few years.
Godfrey died in 1756 and the business was wholly taken over by his nephew. By the nephew's death in 1797, the firm had been bought out by Charles Gomond Cooke, and became Godfrey and Cooke. A century later that business had lost some of its manufacturing side, and had moved to Conduit Street in the west end of London. The pharmacy then moved to the Royal Arcade, Old Bond Street, but closed and the stock was sold off in 1915. Savory and Moore of Bond Street acquired the good will of the business.
At some time before 1680 Ambrose Godfrey, or Godfrey Hanckwitz, was brought over from Germany to assist the Hon. Robert Boyle, the philosopher and chemist, in his scientific experiments. (ref. 53) From 1671 until his death in 1691 Boyle was living in Pall Mall, where he had a laboratory, (ref. 54) and it was perhaps here that Boyle in 1680 arrived at a method of preparing phosphorus. (ref. 55) Godfrey may have been concerned in this work, for he later sold phosphorus at 50s. an ounce. (ref. 56)
At first Godfrey lived with his wife and family in lodgings, in a single room in Chandos Street, Covent Garden. But during his travels in Germany Boyle had also met with a member of the Rosicrucian sect who claimed to be able to produce gold from base metals and to be in possession of the secret of the Philosopher's Stone. Boyle brought this philosopher over to London, where for a while he lodged in the Godfreys' already overcrowded room in Chandos Street. Here a 'digesting furnace' was established and the philosopher set to work. Boyle, who provided all the funds for this unconventional ménage, frequently asked Godfrey for progress reports—'what news etc ? and what has he done ? and what have you seen? being continually the query'. (ref. 57) In later life Godfrey confessed that the philosopher had 'bewitched' him, and matters went from bad to worse when the philosopher's wife arrived from Holland. By this time Godfrey had found separate lodgings for his unwanted visitor, but the ungrateful philosopher had turned against his distracted compatriot: 'he even sent his troublesome wife to me at my door', Godfrey long afterwards recalled, 'who scolded in the German tongue and made people stare … saying you are my ruin, you brought me over, or else I was well in Holland; and this railing was by his [the philosopher's] consent, and it was then he began to question my fidelity, whether I delivered all what Mr. Boyle gave. I was now teased almost out of my life, with the continued song, money, money, sometimes he, sometimes his wife, a terrible bawling creature.' (ref. 57)
The dénouement of this domestic fracas is not recorded. Boyle died in 1691, and the next that is known of Godfrey is that in December 1706 he took a building lease of two adjoining plots on Bedford Ground, one on the west side of Southampton Street (No. 31 on fig. 32) and the other on the south side of Southampton Court, now Maiden Lane (No. 3). (ref. 38) In Southampton Street he built himself a house and used the site in Southampton Court for his laboratory. (fn. *) The latter, which measured 97 feet by 16 feet 6 inches, was described on a Bedford estate plan as 'a low building with a Cockloft at one end', (ref. 58) and it had an entrance from the back yard of No. 31 as well as from Southampton Court. The interior is illustrated in the set of engravings made in or after 1728 and reproduced on Plate 56. Plate 56b shows the east side of the laboratory, with the door into Southampton Court on the left, the entrance from the yard of No. 31 Southampton Street in the centre, and on the right a door into the garden of a house in the Strand which was also owned by Godfrey. (ref. 59) Plate 56a shows the apparatus used for the preparation of phosphorus which was apparently carried out on the west side of the laboratory, with a door from Southampton Court on the right. The laboratory was still in use in 1859, when one of the original furnaces was making charcoal. (ref. 60) In 1862 the building was converted into a potato warehouse, (ref. 61) and in 1872 it was demolished for the erection of Corpus Christi Roman Catholic Church, part of which now occupies the site. (ref. 62)
In his new laboratory Godfrey was able to make a wide variety of chemical experiments, and to sell his products at his shop in Southampton Street. (ref. 56) A visit there in October 1710 is described by Zacharias Conrad von Uffenbach, the German book collector and connoisseur, who was then in England. 'We went to the house of the well-known German chemist Gottfried … we bought from him a supply of English salt, etc. and saw his incomparably handsome laboratorium, which is both neatly and lavishly appointed, being also provided with all manner of curious stoves. For an ounce of salt we had to pay a shilling, but for the essence of lavender that goes with it … five shillings. We also purchased phosphorium at eight shillings, a drachma.' (ref. 63)
Some years later Godfrey invented 'a new Method of Extinguishing Fires by Explosion and Suffocation', in which containers holding water 'impregnated with a certain preparation an Enemy to Fire' were exploded within the burning buildings. This device was first demonstrated on a specially built house in Belsize Park in April 1723 before a distinguished audience, but it was not entirely successful. A second attempt was made in May in Westminster Fields, with more satisfactory results, (ref. 64) and in November 1727 The Weekly Miscellany reported that Godfrey's 'Fire Watches', as these extinguishers were called, had been remarkably successful in preventing the spread of fires in London. (ref. 65) In 1730 he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society.
Ambrose Godfrey died in 1741. His eldest son, Boyle Godfrey, who lived in Tavistock Street from 1731 until 1753, (ref. 16) had dabbled in alchemy and 'squander'd away in a very profuse manner' the large sums of money which his father had already given him. He therefore only inherited a pension of 10s. a week 'that he might not want bread', and the house, shop, laboratory and business passed to Godfrey's two other sons, Ambrose II and John. (ref. 66) But they did not inherit their father's commercial acumen, and within five years both were declared bankrupt. (ref. 67) The business itself survived, managed now by Ambrose II with the help of his nephew, Ambrose Godfrey III, who was Boyle Godfrey's son. (ref. 68)
Ambrose Godfrey III inherited the business from his uncle in 1756, (ref. 68) and on his own death in 1797 he bequeathed it jointly to his son Ambrose Towers Godfrey and his assistant Charles Gomond Cooke, on condition that they should form a partnership to be called Godfrey and Cooke. (ref. 69) The two parties signed their articles of partnership in May 1797. (ref. 70) In the following July they took a repairing lease of the premises (ref. 71) and it was probably at about this time that they inserted the elaborate colonnaded shop front into the ground floor of No. 31 Southampton Street which can be seen in Plate 57a.
Ambrose Towers Godfrey neglected the business and squandered his fortune. (ref. 72) After his death in 1807 and of his younger brother (who was not connected with the firm) in 1812 the male line of the Godfreys came to an end, and the business was managed by Cooke. (ref. 73) In 1826–7 he opened a second shop in Conduit Street, Mayfair. (ref. 74) After his death in 1842 the business was carried on under the management of William Ince, who had been Cooke's assistant for twentysix years, and who later became President of the Pharmaceutical Society. (ref. 75) The firm remained at No. 31 Southampton Street and No. 3 Maiden Lane until 1862, but thereafter it was continued at the shop in Conduit Street until 1913, when it removed to the Royal Arcade off Old Bond Street. There it finally closed its doors in 1916. (ref. 76)
After the removal of the firm from No. 31 Southampton Street in 1862 another of Charles Gomond Cooke's assistants, William Dart, started a chemist's business on his own account in the next door house at No. 30, (ref. 77) where he displayed the name Godfrey and Cooke on the fasciaboard of his shop. Both Nos. 30 and 31 were demolished in 1893. (ref. 78) A photograph taken shortly before their demolition (Plate 57a) shows the parapet of No. 31 surmounted by a stone phoenix, the sign by which the business had been known in the eighteenth century, and a tablet bearing the date 1680. This date may perhaps have been intended to commemorate Robert Boyle's success in the preparation of phosphorus, or, erroneously, the date of the establishment of Godfrey's business in Southampton Street.
Ambrose Godfrey-Hanckwitz (1660 – 15 January 1741), or Ambrose Godfrey as he preferred to be known, was a German-born British phosphorus manufacturer and apothecary. He was one of the first phosphorus manufacturers and was one of the best and most successful in his time.
Godfrey was born in Nienburg in Saxony. In 1679 aged 19 he and his wife travelled to London where he was to work as an assistant to Robert Boyle, trying to produce phosphorus. Boyle is remembered as the first chemist, but his earliest interests were in alchemy, and he wanted to learn about the then new phosphorus. Boyle had employed German alchemist Johann Becher who was in London looking for work. Becher recommended Ambrose Godfrey as an assistant.
Boyle knew from hints given by Daniel Kraft (when he had demonstrated phosphorus) that it was made from human urine or maybe faeces, but neither Boyle's first employee Bilger nor then Becher and Godfrey were able to make it. But Becher knew that its first discoverer Hennig Brandt had the secret. Godfrey was sent to Hamburg to see Brandt and came back with the missing key: that very high temperatures were needed.
On his return Godfrey tried a new batch of urine. He used so much heat that it cracked the retort, but Boyle saw the residue in the broken container glowed faintly, so they were on the right track. Godfrey's job became making phosphorus for Boyle, and he acquired skill at it. His procedure was the same as Brandt's, namely to boil human urine down to a residue, then heat that strongly to give off phosphorus gas which would condense. Godfrey produced two forms, solid phosphorus (the white phosphorus allotrope), or a mix with oil of urine where it remains liquid at room temperature.
Godfrey was not always careful handling phosphorus, his fingers were often blistered and slow to heal from touching the solid. On one occasion on his way to see Boyle a phial of phosphorus broke and burned holes in his breeches, which Boyle "could not look upon without some wonder as well as smiles".
Initially Becher and Godfrey had got along well and they shared lodgings in Covent Garden. When Becher's wife arrived in London it seems she took a dislike to Godfrey and there were various disagreements. Godfrey helped the Bechers move to new lodgings, yet Mrs Becher would return to shout abuse and accusations. The worst was when Boyle reduced Becher's salary over lack of success in Becher's alchemical experiments. Becher blamed Godfrey, and Mrs Becher took to following Mrs Godfrey through the streets shouting abuse. But, as Godfrey wrote, "thank God, all in German, that the people understood her not."
By 1682 two years of research had satisifed Boyle's curiosity and Boyle and Godfrey parted. Godfrey was still interested in phosphorus and Boyle helped finance Godfrey's manufacture of it. In 1683 Godfrey named his first son Boyle Godfrey, in Boyle's honour. (He had two more sons, Ambrose and John.)
By 1685 Godfrey had a going business. He had a furnace behind his lodgings and made use of the human wastes from the adjoining Bedford House estate. He advertised phosphorus at 50 shillings wholesale or 60 shillings retail an ounce, and was selling all he could make. He'd improved production by melting the final phosphorus and forcing it through a chamois leather to purify. But his main employment was at Apothecaries Hall, where in time he became master of the laboratory.
Others tried to make phosphorus too, without success. It was supposed there was a step missing from what Boyle had published in 1682, a step only Godfrey knew. Godfrey had every reason to keep his methods secret, but the essentials were exactly as Boyle had set out. The only extra thing Godfrey knew was that faeces could be used as well as urine.
Godfrey's business grew along with his reputation, and he took on employees, becoming known for producing the best phosphorus available. He sold within Britain and exported to Europe. By the early 1700s, Godfrey was thought to be selling as much as 50 lb a year, worth about £2,000, or about £600,000 in today's money. This was not his only business, but presumably the profit from such a turnover was significant.
In 1707 Godfrey was wealthy enough to buy the lease to a new shop in Southampton St where the Bedford House estate had stood. He opened a pharmacy, and he and his family lived above it. Under the lease he could not carry on "obnoxious" trade there, but the narrow strip of land behind was unrestricted, so he built a workshop there, where he and his staff made phosphorus, and where he gave demonstrations of it.
Godfrey died on 15 January 1741 and his oldest son Boyle Godfrey took over the business. But Boyle dabbled in alchemy, wasted his inheritance, and had to live on a pension provided by his brothers Ambrose and John, who took over the business in 1742. Ambrose and John were also unsuccessful and in 1746 were declared bankrupt. The business passed to their nephew, Boyle's son, named Ambrose Godfrey after his grandfather. The younger Ambrose was successful, carrying on the business until his death in 1797, when it passed in turn to his son Ambrose Towers Godfrey, who formed a partnership with Charles Cooke. The firm Godfrey and Cooke continued until 1915.
But the Godfrey business' dominance in phosphorus did not last. It was overtaken by new methods such as that of Bertrand Pelletier using bones in the 1770s.
[edit]
AMBROSE GODFREY. CHEMIST
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