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. 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 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. In 1748 he discovered the phenomenon of osmosis in natural membranes. In the same year, he also invented an electroscope. In 1750 Nollet was the first to report a phenomenon that is known today as electrostatic spraying. 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: 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. 1747: Part of a Letter from Abbè Nollet, of the Royal Academy of Sciences at Paris, and F. R. S. to Martin Folkes Esq; Presisident of the Same, concerning Electricity (Translated from the French by Tho. Stack, M.D. F.R.S.). Philosophical Transactions, 45: 187–194, 1748. 1749: Recherches Sur Les Causes Particulieres Des Phénoménes Électriques. Paris. Nouvelle Édition, 1754, Paris. 1750: Extract of the Observations Made in Italy, by the Abbe Nollet, F.R.S. on the Grotta de Cani (Translated from the French by Tho. Stack, M.D. F.R.S.). Philosophical Transactions, 47: 48–61, 1752. 1759: Leçons de physique expérimentale, Vol. 1 (5th ed.) Paris. 1760: Lettres sur l'electricite (Premiere Partie, Nouvelle Édition) Paris. (5 of the letters are to Benjamin Franklin) 1770: L'Art des expériences. (3 vols.) (1st and 2nd ed.; 1784, 3rd. ed.; 1787, Nouvelle edition) Paris. See also List of Roman Catholic scientist-clerics References External links Nollet Biography (with many photographs of instruments) by Eugenii Katz 1700 births 1770 deaths French physicists French abbots Academic staff of the University of Paris Members of the