Robert Hare was born in Philadelphia in 1781, son of a prominent citizen and proprietor of a large brewery in the city. Although Hare was expected to take over his father’s business, he was drawn to study the sciences. Before he was twenty years old, he enrolled in chemistry and physics classes and became a member of the city’s Chemical Society. Hare married Harriet Clark, the daughter of a wealthy Rhode Island mercantile family. They lived in a mansion among Philadelphia’s most affluent families. Hare became a man of business as well as science.

Hare’s most famous invention was the oxyhydrogen blowpipe which created intense flame that could fuse seemingly intractable metals. In 1816, he built a series of calorimeters, chemical batteries that generated quantities of heat that could be studied. In 1820, he invented a battery that produced a ready supply of electricity and heat.

Hare first became a professor at the University of Pennsylvania, and then chemistry chair in 1818.  In the 1840s, he co-founded of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He also published two novels: Standish the Puritan and Overing.

Hare was one of the first scientific authorities to publicly denounce Spiritualism. In 1853 he called it a “gross delusion.” To prove that the rappings and table tippings resulted from human actions, Hare attended seances and invented the “spiritscope” to detect the fraud.

Rather than uncovering deception, Hare became convinced Spiritualism was authentic. He suggested that mind, matter, and spirit were equally real, differing only in their relative densities and properties. He devised several instruments to prove that a supernatural power and intelligence was at work. His book Experimental Investigation of the Spirit Manifestation, published in 1855, details his results.

Hare attempted to share his Spiritualist insights with his scientific colleagues at the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s meetings. Eventually, the members denied his speaking requests. Harvard University professors passed a resolution denouncing him as insane. In 1854, he resigned his position as chair and “gave up science for the investigation of truth.” He predicted that his work would launch “a new era of science.” He died in 1858.

Additional Reading:

Hare, Robert (1855). Experimental Investigation of the Spirit Manifestations. Partridge & Britten, New York. Reprint, Elk Grove, Wis.: Sycamorte Press, 1963.

Kneeland, Timothy W. (2008) “Robert Hare: Politics, Science, and Spiritualism in the Early Republic.”
The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. 132, No. 3 (Jul., 2008), University of Pennsylvania Press.

Smith, Edgar Fahs. (2010) The Life of Robert Hare: An American Chemist (1781-1858), Nabu Press.