Related Directory Categories
- Scientists (104)
- Political Scientists (35)
- Cognitive Scientists (32)
- Scientists and Engineers (26)
- Scientists (19)
- Franklin, Benjamin (16)
- Scientists (12)
- Salk, Jonas (10)
- Pauling, Linus (9)
- Carver, George Washington (8)
Sources
Help build the largest human-edited directory on the web.
Submit a site - Become an editor
Wikipedia. Licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Are you an expert in this subject? Join the discussion and share your knowledge at Wikipedia.org.
William Watson (scientist)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
William Watson (3 April 1715 – 10 May 1787) was an English physician and scientist who was born and died in London. His early work was in botany, and he helped to introduce the work of Carolus Linnaeus into England. He became a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1741 and vice president in 1772.
In 1746 he showed that the capacity of the Leyden jar could be increased by coating it inside and out with lead foil. In the same year he proposed that the two types of electricity—vitreous and resinous—posited by DuFay were actually a surplus (a positive charge) and a deficiency (a negative charge) of a single fluid which he called electrical ether, and that the quantity of electrical charge was conserved. (He acknowledged that the same theory had been independently developed at the same time by Benjamin Franklin—the two men later became allies in both scientific and political matters.)
The following are named after Watson:
- Biography of Benjamin Franklin
- Biography of Watson
- Biography at Wolfram Research
- "Watson, Sir William", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography 2004–2005
| Awards | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Henry Baker |
Copley Medal 1745 |
Succeeded by Benjamin Robins |
 |
This English biographical article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
 |
This article about a botanist is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |