Carl Kellner (mystic)
| Carl Kellner | |
|---|---|
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| Born |
1 September 1851 Vienna, Austrian Empire |
| Died | 7 June 1905 (aged 53) Vienna, Austria-Hungary |
Carl Kellner (1 September 1851 – June 7, 1905) was a chemist, inventor, and industrialist. He made significant improvements to the sulfite process and was co-inventor of the Castner-Kellner process. He was a student of Freemasonry, Rosicrucianism, and Eastern mysticism. He was the putative founder of Ordo Templi Orientis.
Carl Kellner is reputed to have developed the Ritter-Kellner process while working for Baron Hector Von Ritter-Zahony in 1876. In 1889 he established the Kellner-Partington paper pulp Co in association with Edward Partington.
The process for making caustic soda and chlorine by electrolysis of brine using a mercury electrode was developed independently by Mr Hamilton Y. Castner and Dr Carl Kellner in 1892. They established the Castner Kellner company jointly to exploit their patents in 1895.
It is not known when he obtained his doctorate but he used the title of PhD from 1895.
Kellner had become a Freemason in 1873, being initiated at the Humanitas Lodge on the Austro-Hungarian border, taking the motto of Brother Renatus. In 1885, Kellner met the Theosophical and Rosicrucian scholar, Dr. Franz Hartmann (1838–1912). He and Hartmann later collaborated on the development of the "ligno-sulphite" inhalation therapy for tuberculosis, which formed the basis of treatment at Hartmann's sanitarium near Saltzburg. During this period Kellner became interested in the more esoteric aspects of Freemasonry, joining John Yarker's Rite of Memphis-Misraim. Hartmann's obituary of Kellner describes that in 1902 Kellner
"...was personally initiated in Manchester by Brother Yarker into the 96°, and made Sovereign Honorary General Grand Master of our Order"
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