Water which does not wet hands: The alchemy of Michael Sendivogius

by Zbigniew Szydło

This remarkable book is about the Polish alchemist and diplomat who, in the early 1600s, discovered the importance of oxygen in sustaining life. Although he kept these findings to himself, the author now links this discovery with the story of another perplexing technological mystery - that of the wooden submaine of Cornelis Drebbel, the Dutch inventor, which sailed under water from Westminster to Greenwich in 1621.

291 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1994