Abraham Bennet
FRS (
baptised 20 December 1749 - buried 9 May 1799) was
an English
clergyman and
physicist, the inventor of the
gold-leaf electroscope and developer
of an improved
magnetometer. Though he
was cited by
Alessandro Volta as a
key influence on his own work, Bennet's work was curtailed by the
political turbulence of his time.
Life
Abraham
was baptised in Taxal, Derbyshire
, the son of another Abraham Bennet, a schoolmaster,
and his wife Ann née Fallowes. There is no record
of him having attended
university but he
is recorded as a teacher at
Wirksworth Grammar School as
"
MA".
He was ordained in London in 1775 and appointed curate at Tideswell
and, one year later, additionally at Wirksworth
, with a combined annual stipend of £60. He further became
rector of Fenny Bentley
, domestic chaplain
to the Duke of Devonshire,
perpetual curate of Woburn
and librarian to the
Duke of Bedford.
Bennet had broad interests in
natural
philosophy and was associated with, though not a member of, the
Lunar Society and the
Derby Philosophical Society. He
was particularly close to
Erasmus
Darwin. Darwin suggested that Bennet make electrical
measurements as part of an investigation into
electricity and weather. Bennet then worked
assiduously establishing his expertise in electricity, achieving
sufficient reputatation to be part of a meeting with
Tiberius Cavallo,
William Nicholson and Volta in
London in 1782.
New Experiments
Bennet published
New Experiments on Electricity in 1789.
In it, he described:
Bennet described experiments with an
electrophorus and the generation of
electricity by
evaporation. Bennet
extended his thinking into various theories about electricity and
weather, with electrical explanations of the
aurora borealis and
meteors. He interpreted
lightning as the release of
electrical charge from clouds, and went on
to hypothesise that rain was caused by lightning and also that
earthquakes had an electrical
origin.
Politics
Among Bennet's other patrons were
Joseph
Banks,
George Adams and
the Wirksworth
squires, the
Gell family. The Gells, Kaye, Banks, Adams, and
the Dukes of Devonshire and Bedford were all establishment figures
whose hostility to the radicals of the Lunar and Derby
Philosophical Societies intensified in the
British reaction to the
French Revolution. Bennet increasinly
found it necessary to take sides, signing the Gells'
petition against
Jacobinism in 1795. Bennet's scientific work ends
around this date, possibly from ill-health but also possibly from
his inability to resolve the tensions among his erstwhile
supporters.
Personal life
He married Jane (died 1826) and the couple had six daughters and
two sons. Bennet died of a "severe illness".
Honours and memorial
References
- Elliott (1999)
Bibliography
- Obituary:
- Derby Mercury, 23 May 1799
Wikis
Map
Search
