Samuel Engel

Samuel Engel (2 December 1702 – 26 March 1784) was a Swiss librarian, civil servant, economist and agronomist working in Bern who introduced innovations in several fields.

His theories about an ice-free polar sea influenced the British Admiralty's decision in favour of the 1773 Phipps expedition towards the North Pole.

[2] A bibliophile and collector, he bought many rare books from all across Europe including 116 incunables out of his own pocket, expecting to be able to sell them to the city for the library.

[2] He worked to improve agriculture and forestry, was one of the founders of the Ökonomische Gesellschaft [de] in 1759, and introduced potato farming to the people of Vaud in Nyon in 1770/71.

[9] From 1735, he participated in the scholarly debate about the existence of a land bridge between North America and Asia, and was closely interested in the Great Northern Expedition, especially in the reports of Johann Georg Gmelin, who was in contact with his cousin and friend Albrecht von Haller.

[10] Despite the observations published by Gmelin, Engel was convinced that an ice free Northeast Passage existed, and tried unsuccessfully to persuade the British Admiralty to send an expedition.

If you arrive at the Pole and should even find the sea so open as to admit of a free navigation on the opposite meridian you are not to proceed any further ..."[14] However, the expedition got stuck in ice near Svalbard and only extricated itself after great difficulties.

[18] In his 1777 book Neuer Versuch über die Lage der nördlichen Gegenden von Asia und Amerika, und dem Versuch eines Wegs durch die Nordsee nach Indien,[19] he accused the Russian government of falsifying maps and defended his theories about the Northeast Passage.