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Jean-Antoine Nollet

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Jean-Antoine Nollet
Portrait by Quentin de La Tour, c. 1753
Portrait by Quentin de La Tour, c. 1753
Born 19 November 1700
Pimprez, Kingdom of France
Died 25 April 1770 (aged 69)
Paris, Kingdom of France
Other name Abbé Nollet
Known for Discovery of osmosis

Jean-Antoine Nollet (French: [ʒɑ̃ ɑ̃twan nole];[1] 19 November 1700 – 25 April 1770)[2] was a French clergyman and physicist who conducted a number of experiments with electricity and discovered osmosis. As a deacon in the Catholic Church,[2] he was also known as Abbé Nollet.

Biography

Nollet studied humanities at the Collège de Clermont in Beauvais, starting in 1715. He completed a master's degree in the Faculty of Theology at the University of Paris in 1724. He was ordained a deacon in the Catholic Church in 1728, but suspended his clerical career.[2] However he used the title of Abbé throughout his life. Nollet was particularly interested in the new science of electricity. He joined the Société des Arts in 1728, an association which was reestablished from a previous version which ended in 1723. Formed under the patronage of Comte de Clermont, the Société focused on applying natural philosophy to practical arts.[3] This association gave Nollet the opportunity to come into contact with important natural philosophers.[4] In particular, it is likely that he came into contact with Du Fay and Réaumur, two leading members of the Royal Academy of Sciences. Nollet assisted them with experiments in a wide variety of topics (e.g., anatomy of insects, fertilization of frogs, thermometry, pneumatics, phosphorescence, magnetism, and electricity) from about 1731 to 1735.[2] In the period from 1731 to 1733, Nollet assisted Du Fay, especially with electrical experiments, and travelled with du Fay in 1734 to meet physicists in England and in 1736 to the Netherlands.[5] He was a member of the Royal Society of London from 1734. He is reputed to have given the name to the Leyden jar after it was invented by Pieter van Musschenbroek. To finance his own experimental instruments, Nollet started building and selling duplicate instruments in 1735.[6]

From at least 1743, the Royal Academy of Sciences identified Nollet as the person who was particularly in charge of research about electricity.[7]

In 1753 he became the first professor of experimental physics in France, at the collège de Navarre, University of Paris.[8][9] In 1762, he was named director of the Royal Academy of Sciences.[9]

Nollet held lectures aimed to popularise physics with the use of instruments. These lectures, collected together and published as Leçons de physique expérimentale and L’Art des expériences, continued to inspire self-taught scientists through the 19th century.[10]

Scientific work

One of many experimental demonstrations of static electricity which he carried out was the "Electric boy", in which a young man was suspended from the ceiling using insulating silk cords, and electrified, causing his body to accumulate charge. Objects were attracted to him, and close proximity of another person could lead to sparks.[11]

In 1746 Nollet gathered about two hundred monks into a circle about a mile (1.6 km) in circumference, with pieces of iron wire connecting them. He then discharged a battery of Leyden jars (the battery here does not refer to an electric battery, but a group as in an artillery battery) through the human chain and observed that each man reacted at substantially the same time to the electric shock, showing that the speed of electricity's propagation was very high.[12]

In 1748 he discovered the phenomenon of osmosis in natural membranes. He covered with pig bladder the mouth of a flask of ethanol, then submerged it in water. After 5 or 6 hours, the pig bladder became convex, and when he pricked it, liquid shot out rising more than 1 foot in height.[13]

In the same year, he also invented an electroscope.[14]

In 1750 Nollet was the first to report a phenomenon that is known today as electrostatic spraying.[15] He noted that water flowing from a vessel would aerosolize if the vessel was electrified and placed near electrical ground.

Writings

  • 1735: Cours de physique expérimentale Paris.
  • 1743-1764: Leçons de physique expérimentale (6 vols.). Paris.
  • 1745: "Conjectures sur les causes de l'Électricité des Corps". Mémoires de l'Académie Royale des Sciences de l'Année 1745 (in French). 1745. Paris: L'Imprimerie Royale: 107–152. 1749.
  • 1746: Observations sur quelques nouveaux phénomènes d'Électricité" Mémoires de l'Académie Royale des Sciences de l'Année 1746, Paris, 1751, pp. 1-23. Partial English translation in: Magie, W.F. (1935). "The Leyden Jar." Source book in physics. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. pp. 403–406.
Essai sur l'électricité des corps. Paris. (2nd ed.), 1750. (link to 3rd printing, 1765) Paris.
Nouvelle Édition, 1754, Paris.

See also

  • List of Roman Catholic scientist-clerics

From the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia

Jean-Antoine Nollet — Physicist, b. at Pimpré, Oise, France, 19 November, 1700; d. at Paris, 25 April, 1770. His peasant parents sent him to study at Clermont and Beauvais. He went later to Paris to prepare for the priesthood. In 1728 he received the deaconship and applied immediately for permission to preach. Soon love of science became uppermost and together with Dufay and Réaumur he devoted himself to the study of physics and especially to research work in electricity. Abbé Nollet was the first to recognize the importance of sharp points on the conductors in the discharge of electricity. This was later applied practically in the construction of the lightning-rod. He also studied the conduction of electricity in tubes, in smoke, vapours, steam, the influence of electric charges on evaporation, vegetation, and animal life. His discovery of the osmosis of water through a bladder into alcohol was the starting-point of that branch of physics.

In 1734 Nollet went to London and was admitted into the Royal Society. In 1735 he started in Paris, at his own expense, a course in experimental physics which he continued until 1760. In 1738 Cardinal Fleury created a public chair of experimental physics for Nollet. In 1739 he entered the Academy of Sciences, becoming associate member in 1742, and pensionary in 1758. In April, 1739 the King of Sardinia called him to Turin to instruct the Duke of Savoy, and to furnish the instruments needed for the new chair of physics at the university. After lecturing a short time at Bordeaux, he was called to Versailles to instruct the dauphin in experimental science. He was appointed professor of experimental physics at the Royal College of Navarre, in 1753. In 1761 he taught at the school of artillery at Mézières. Nollet was also a member of the Institute of Bologna and of the Academy of Sciences of Erfurt. He was calm and simple in manner, and his letters and papers showed that he had been devoted and generous to his family and his native village. Nollet contributed to the "Recueil de l'Académie des Sciences" (1740-67) and the "Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society"; his larger works include among others: - "Programme d'un cours de physique expérimentale" (Paris, 1738); "Leçons de physique expérimentale" (Paris, 1743); "Recherches sur les causes particulières des phénomenes électriques" (Paris, 1749); "L'art des expériences" (Paris, 1770).

GRANDJEAN DE FOUCHY, Eloge de J.-A. Nollet; Histoire de l'Academie Royale des Sciences (Paris, 1773), 121-36.

References

  1. Back to citation "Jean-Antoine Nollet pronunciation in French". www.forvo.com. Retrieved 21 July 2020.
  2. Back to citation occurrence 2.0 Back to citation occurrence 2.1 Back to citation occurrence 2.2 Back to citation occurrence 2.3 Heilbron, John L. (1974). "Nollet, Jean-Antoine". In Gillespie, C. C. (ed.). Dictionary of Scientific Biography. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. p. 145. Retrieved 27 April 2018.
  3. Back to citation Courcelle, Olivier. "Société des arts". Chronologie de la vie de Clairaut (1713-1765). Retrieved 27 April 2018.
  4. Back to citation Schiffer, Michael Brian (2003). Draw the Lightning Down: Benjamin Franklin and Electrical Technology in the Age of Enlightenment. Univ. of California Press. pp. 37–38. ISBN 0-520-24829-5.
  5. Back to citation Maluf, Rahmez Bahige (1985). Jean Antoine Nollet and experimental natural philosophy in eighteenth-century France (doctoral dissertation). University of Oklahoma. p. 119.
  6. Back to citation "Nollet, Jean-Antoine". Concise dictionary of scientific biography (2nd ed.). Charles Scribner's Sons. 2000. p. 652.
  7. Back to citation "Expériences sur l'Électricité". Histoires de l'Académie Royale des Sciences de l'Année 1743 (in French). 1743. Paris: L'Imprimerie Royale: 45. 1746.
  8. Back to citation Frize, Monique (2013). Laura Bassi and Science in 18th Century Europe: The Extraordinary Life and Role of Italy's Pioneering Female Professor. Springer. p. 78. ISBN 9783642386855. Retrieved 23 April 2018.
  9. Back to citation occurrence 9.0 Back to citation occurrence 9.1 Charbonneau, Frédéric, ed. (2005). L'art d'écrire la science: anthologie de textes savants du XVIIIe siècle français. Quebec: Les Presses de l'Université Laval. p. 66. ISBN 9782763782089.
  10. Back to citation Schlager, Neil (2000). "Biographical mentions". In Schlager, Neil; Lauer, Josh (eds.). Science and Its Times. Vol. 4 1700-1799. pp. 367, 371. Retrieved 30 April 2018.
  11. Back to citation Lynn, Michael R. (2006). Popular science and public opinion in eighteenth-century France. Manchester: Manchester Univ. Press. p. 31. ISBN 978-0719073731. Retrieved 31 October 2017.
  12. Back to citation Gundersen, P. Erik (October 1998). The Handy Physics Answer Book. Visible Ink Press. p. 233. ISBN 978-1578590582.
  13. Back to citation (Abbé) Nollet, Jean Antoine (31 March 1995). "Investigations on the causes for the ebullition of liquids". Journal of Membrane Science. The early history of membrane science selected papers celebrating vol. 100. 100 (1): 1–3. doi:10.1016/0376-7388(94)00224-M. ISSN 0376-7388.
  14. Back to citation Bard A; Inzelt G; Scholz F., eds. (2008). "N". Electrochemical Dictionary. Springer. p. 626. doi:10.1007/978-3-540-74598-3_14. ISBN 9783540745976.
  15. Back to citation "Applying Inverse Electrostatic Spraying". Oak Ridge National Laboratory Review. 29 (1&2): 34. 1996. Retrieved 27 April 2018.
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