John Read was a British

physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate caus ...

and inventor. He developed a rotating doubler

electrostatic generator An electrostatic generator, or electrostatic machine, is an electrical generator that produces '' static electricity'', or electricity at high voltage and low continuous current. The knowledge of static electricity dates back to the earliest civi ...

, used to produce

static electricity Static electricity is an imbalance of electric charges within or on the surface of a material or between materials. The charge remains until it is able to move away by means of an electric current or electrical discharge. Static electricity is na ...

, which he called a 'spectacle doubler' because it involved discs of glass. His work was based on William Nicholson's doubler. Reid lived in

Knightsbridge, London Knightsbridge is a residential and retail district in central London, south of Hyde Park, London, Hyde Park. It is identified in the London Plan as one of two international retail centres in London, alongside the West End of London, West End. ...

and taught at the Knightsbridge Charity School. He made observations of the atmospheric electric field, which he observed behaved differently in different air quality conditions, in 1791 and 1792. This phenomenon is now understood as originating from the global electric circuit. Richard Lovett was the first British academic to publish Read's letters after his death.

References

British physicists 18th-century British scientists Year of birth missing Year of death missing {{UK-scientist-stub

See also

References