Optics, Preachers, Electricity, Chemists, and Gases

PRIESTLEY, JOSEPH ( Birstal Fieldhead, Yorkshire, England, 13 March 1733; Northumberland, Pennsylvania, 6 February 1804) Educated for the dissenting ministry and employed most of his adult life as a teacher [...]

Scientists, Conservation laws (Physics), Lightning rods, Electric conductors, Inventors, Grounding (Electricity), Electricity, and Clouds (Meteorology)

Franklin, Benjamin ( . Boston, Massachusetts, 17 January 1706; . Philadephia, Pennsylvania, 17 April 1790) . Benjamin Franklin was the first American to win an international reputation in pure science [...]

Scientists, Faraday effect, Physicists, Benzene, Chemists, Electrochemistry, Electromagnetism, Substitution reactions, Electricity, and Field theories (Physics)

Faraday, Michael ( . Newington, Surrey [now part of Southwark, London], England, 22 September 1791; . Hampton Court, Middlesex, England, 25 August 1867) . Michael Faraday was born into a [...]

Physicists, Magnetism, Electricity, and Chemists

Dufay (Du Fay), Charles-François Decisternai ( . Paris, France, 14 September 1698; . Paris, 16 July 1739) . Dufay came from a family that had followed military careers for over [...]

Physics, Physicists, Electrical resistance, Electricity, and Heat

WILCKE, JOHAN CARL ( . Wismar, Germany, 6 September 1732; . Stockholm, Sweden, 18 April (1796) Like many of the Swedish savants of the eighteenth century, including Samuel Klingenstierna and [...]

Electrical conductivity, Physics, Medicine, Botanists, Pharmacists, Botany, Electricity, and Physicians

WATSON WILLIAM ( . London, England, 3 April 1715; . London, 10 May 1787), Watson, the son of a cornchandler, obtained a sound basic education at the Merchant Taylors’s school [...]

Physicists, College faculty, Electricity, and Inventors

VOLTA, ALESSANDRO GIUSEPPE ANTONIO ANASTASIO ( Como. duchy of Milan, Italy, 18 February 1745; . Como, 5 March 1827), Volta came from a Lombard family ennobled by the municipality of [...]

Faraday's law of induction, Physicists, Coulomb's law, Absolute zero, Electrostatic interactions, Poisson's equation, and Electricity

THOMSON, SIR WILLIAM (BARON KELVIN OF LARGS) ( . Belfast, Ireland, 26 June 1824; . Netherhall, near Largs, Ayrshire, Scotland, 17 December 1907) . Thomson was the son of James [...]

Electrons, Physicists, Nobel laureates, Scattering (Physics), X-rays, Cathode rays, Electricity, and Mathematical physics

THOMSON, JOSEPH JOHN ( . Cheetham Hill, near Manchester. England, 18 December 1856; . Cambridge, England, 30 August 1940) . Thomson came to physics for want of money to enter [...]

Refraction, Physicists, Infrared radiation, Educators, Electromagnetic radiation, and Electricity

RUBENS, HEINRICH (HENRI LEOPOLD) ( . Wiesbaden, Germany, 30 March 1865; . Berlin, Germany, 17 July 1922) . Rubens was the son of Barend Eliazer Rubens, a jeweler who had [...]

Research scientists, Electric conductors, Mathematics textbooks, Science literature, Teachers, German writers, Physicists, Mathematicians, Science writers, Ohm's law, Electricity, and Electric current

OHM, GEORG SIMON ( . Erlangen, Bavaria, 16 March 1789; . Munich, Bavaria, 6 July 1854) . Ohm was the oldest son of Johann Wolfgang Ohm, master locksmith, and Maria [...]

Scientists, Lightning, Physicists, Electricity, and Science history

NOLLET, JEAN-ANTOINE ( Pimprez, near Noyon, France, 19 November 1700; . paris, France, 24 April 1770) . Nollet’s rise from the semiliterate peasantry to the top of the aristocratic Paris [...]

Juvenilia (Literature), Saturn (Planet), Physicists, Color vision, Physics research, and Electricity

MAXWELL, JAMES CLERK ( . Edinburgh, Scotland, 13 June 1831; . Cambridge, England, 5 November 1879) Maxwell was a descendant of the Clerks of Penicuik, a family prominent in Edinburgh [...]

Electrical conductivity, Blackbody radiation, Physicists, Spectroscopy, Electricity, and Emission spectra

Kirchhoff, Gustav Robert ( . Königsberg, Germany, 12 March 1824; . Berlin, Germany, 17 October 1887) Kirchhoff’s major contribution to physics was his experimental discovery and theoretical analysis in 1859 [...]

Cosmology, Magnetite, Experimental physicists, Physicians, Electricity, and Magnetism

Gilbert, William ( Colchester, Essex, England, 1544; . London, England, 30 November 1603) . Gilbert was born into a rising, middle-class family that had only recently acquired its well-to-do status. [...]

Freemasons, Electricity, and Natural philosophers

Desaguliers, John Theophilus ( . La Rochelle, France, 12 March 1683; . London, England, 10 March 1744) . Desaguliers was taken to Guernsey when he was less than three years [...]