John James Heidegger
John James (Johann Jacob) Heidegger (
The son of Zürich clergyman Johann Heinrich Heidegger, Johann Jacob Heidegger came to England in 1708 as a Swiss negotiator. He failed in his undertaking, and was involved in difficulties. So he entered as a private in the Guards, and afterwards became influential in the management of the opera. In 1709 he made five hundred guineas by furnishing the spectacle for Motteux's opera Thomyris, Queen of Scythia.
From 1710 on, as part of a new commercial public entertainment, he promoted
In 1727, during the coronation of King George II in Westminster Hall, he provided a spectacle of lighting 1800 candles in under three minutes. He had used a burnable connector that ran from candle to candle. According to the poet Thomas Gray, the Queen and her ladies "were in no small terror" as trains of flax were set alight and flames ran swiftly from candle to candle. The expiring flax fell in large flakes upon the heads of those beneath but did no harm.
In 1728 Heidegger was called in to nurse the
References
- Stephen, Leslie; Lee, Sidney, eds. (1891). . Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 25. London: Smith, Elder & Co.