A.D. 1742.—Gordon (Andreas), a Scotch Benedictine monk (1712–1757), Professor of Philosophy at Erfurt, abandons the use of glass globes (Newton, at A.D. 1675 and Hauksbee, at A.D. 1705), and is the first to employ a glass cylinder, the better to develop electricity. His cylinder, eight inches long and four inches wide, is made to turn by means of a bow with such rapidity that it attains 680 revolutions per minute.
Priestley says (“Discovery of Germans,” Part I. period vii.) that Gordon “increased the electric sparks to such a degree that they were felt from a man’s head to his foot, so that a person could hardly take them without falling down with giddiness; and small birds were killed by them. This he effected by conveying electricity, with iron wires, to the distance of 200 ells (about 250 yards) from the place of excitation.”
References.—Dantzig Memoirs, Vol. II. pp. 358, 359, and Nollet, “Recherches,” etc., p. 172. See also Gordon’s “Phenomena Electricitatis Exposita,” Erford, 1744 and 1746; “Philosophia,” 1745; “Tentamen ... Electricitatis,” 1745; “Versuche ... einer Electricität.,” 1745–1746.
A.D. 1743.—Hausen (Christian Augustus), Professor of Mathematics at Leipzig, publishes his “Novi profectus in historia electricitatis,” and is the first to revive the use of the glass globe introduced by Newton (A.D. 1675) and employed with great effect by Hauksbee (A.D. 1705).
In Watson’s “Expériences et observations sur l’électricité,” is shown an electrical machine constructed by Hausen and differing but slightly from the one alluded to herein at A.D. 1705 as made for M. Wolfius. In this illustration a lady is pressing her hand against the glass globe, which is being rotated rapidly, thus developing upon its surface the vitreous electricity, while the resinous electricity passes through her body to the earth. The young man who is suspended and insulated by silken cords, represents the prime conductor introduced by Prof. Boze (A.D. 1738). The vitreous electricity passes from the surface of the glass globe, through his feet and entire body, and is communicated by his hand to the young girl, who stands upon a large section of resin, and is able to attract small parcels of gold leaf by means of the electric fluid. Another machine, taken from the same French work (originally published at Paris in 1748), is said to have been at that time much in use throughout Holland and principally at Amsterdam. The man rotates a glass globe, against which the operator presses his hand, and the electricity is conveyed through the metallic rod supported by silk-covered stands and held by a third party, who is igniting spirits in the manner indicated at the A.D. 1744 date.
Reference.—Dantzig Memoirs, Vol. I. pp. 278, 279.
A.D. 1743.—Boerhaave—Boerhaaven—(Hermann), illustrious physician, mathematician and natural philosopher (1668–1738), who held the chairs of theoretical medicine, practical medicine, botany and chemistry at the University of Leyden, F.R.S. and member French Academy of Sciences, writes an Essay on the virtue of Magnetical Cures, of which there were subsequently many editions and translations in different languages.
One of his biographers calls him “the Galen, the Ibn Sina, the Fernel of his age.” Another remarks that he was, perhaps, the greatest physician of modern times: “A man who, when we contemplate his genius, his erudition, the singular variety of his talents, his unfeigned piety, his spotless character, and the impress which he left not only on contemporaneous practice, but on that of succeeding generations, stands forth as one of the brightest names on the page of medical history, and may be quoted as an example not only to physicians, but to mankind at large. No professor was ever attended, in public as well as at private lectures, by so great a number of students, from such distant and different parts, for so many years successively; none heard him without conceiving a veneration for his person, at the same time that they expressed their surprise at his prodigious attainments; and it may be justly affirmed, that none in so private a station ever attracted a more universal esteem.”
References.—“Biographica Philosophica,” Benj. Martin, London, 1764, pp. 478–483; “Eloge de Boerhaave,” by Maty, Leyde, 1747, and by Fontenelle, 1763, T. VI; his life, written by Dr. Wm. Burton, London, 1736; Van Swinden, “Recueil,” etc., La Haye, 1784, Vol. II. p. 354, note; “La Grande Encyclopédie,” Tome VII. p. 42; “Biographie Générale,” Tome VI. pp. 352–357; “Biographie Universelle,” Vol. IV. pp. 529–555; Ninth “Encycl. Britannica,” Vol. III. p. 854; “Histoire Philosophique de la Médecine,” Etienne Tourtelle, Paris, An. XII. (1807), Vol. II. pp. 404–446; “Bibl. Britan.” (Authors), Rob. Watt, Edinburgh, 1824, Vol. I. p. 127; “The Edinburgh Encyclopædia,” 1830, Vol. III. pp. 628–630 or the 1813 ed., Vol. III. pp. 612–614; G. A. Pritzel, “Thesaurus Literaturæ Botanicæ,” Lipsiæ, 1851, p. 26.
A.D. 1744.—Ludolf—Leudolff—(Christian Friedrich), of Berlin, first exhibits, January 23, the ignition of inflammable substances by the electric spark. This he does in the presence of hundreds of spectators, on the occasion of the opening of the Royal Academy of Sciences by Frederick the Great of Prussia, when fire is set to sulphuric ether through a spark from the sword of one of the court cavaliers (see notes on Tyndall’s second lecture, 1876, p. 80).