Inventors
Jean
Antoine Nollet - Electroscope
Jean
Antoine Nollet (1700–1770) was a clergyman and physicist. In
1748, Nollet invented
one of the first electrometers, the electroscope, which detected the presence
of electric charge by using electrostatic attraction and repulsion. Nollet
later wrote a theory on electrical attraction and repulsion based on the
existence of a continuous flow of electrical matter between charged bodies
and became the the first professor of experimental physics at the University
of Paris.
More on Jean
Antoine Nollet
According to Britannica.com:
"Osmotic pressure, the pressure that
develops in a solution separated from a solvent by a membrane permeable
only to solvent, was first described by Abbé Jean
Antoine Nollet, who became
professor of experimental physics at the College of Navarre.
In 1746, the abbé Jean
Antoine Nollet, a physicist who popularized science in France, discharged a Leyden
jar in front of King Louis XV by sending current through a chain of 180
Royal Guards. In another demonstration, Nollet used wire made of iron to
connect a row of Carthusian monks more than a kilometre long; when a Leyden
jar was discharged, the white-robed monks reportedly leapt simultaneously
into the air."
Description of a Electroscope
According to Noah Dorsey:
"The simple electroscope consists of a
metal case within which, and near its center, is supported in a vertical
position a well-insulated metal strip to the top of which is attached a narrow
strip of thin foil, preferably of gold leaf. This strip of foil is usually
spoken of as the leaf. The strip of metal and the leaf constitute the
insulated system of the electroscope. When the insulated system is
electrically charged by a suitable switch passing through the wall of the
case, the leaf is repelled by the strip, and is deflected from its normal,
vertical position. In opposite sides of the case are windows through which the
position of the leaf can be observed. Such observation is usually made by
means of a microscope having in its eyepiece a ruled scale."
Electroscope
There are various types of
electroscopes.
Lind Electroscope
Samuel C Lind born 1879 invented the
first electroscope for radium measurements called the Lind electroscope.
Gold-Leaf Electroscope
Englishmen, Abraham Bennet invented
the gold-leaf electroscope in 1786.
1927:
NBS gold leaf electroscope
Simple
Leaf Electroscope
Related Innovations
Electricity
Several inventors in the field of
electricity and electrical theory are profiled.
©Mary
Bellis
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