Lord Charles Cavendish FRS (17 March 1704 – 28 April 1783) was a British nobleman and Whig politician. Cavendish was the youngest son of

William Cavendish, 2nd Duke of Devonshire William Cavendish, 2nd Duke of Devonshire (1672 – 4 June 1729) was a British nobleman and politician. He was the eldest son of William Cavendish, 1st Duke of Devonshire and Lady Mary Butler. A prominent Whig, he was sworn of the Privy Counc ...

, and Rachel Russell. On 9 January 1727, Lord Charles Cavendish married Lady Anne de Grey (died 20 September 1733), daughter of

Henry Grey, 1st Duke of Kent Henry Grey, 1st Duke of Kent, KG, PC (16715 June 1740) was a British politician and courtier. None of his sons outlived him, so his new title became extinct on his death. Though the house he built at Wrest Park in Bedfordshire has gone, parts ...

, and Jemima, his first wife. They had two children:

Henry Cavendish Henry Cavendish ( ; 10 October 1731 – 24 February 1810) was an English natural philosopher and scientist who was an important experimental and theoretical chemist and physicist. He is noted for his discovery of hydrogen, which he termed "infl ...

(1731–1810), considered one of the most accomplished physicists and chemists of his era, and Frederick Cavendish (1733–1812). Cavendish entered the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...

for

Heytesbury Heytesbury is a village (formerly considered to be a town) and a civil parish in Wiltshire, England. The village lies on the north bank of the Wylye, about southeast of the town of Warminster. The civil parish includes most of the small neigh ...

in 1725 and would remain a member in various seats until 1741, when he turned the "family seat" of

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southern end of the Pennine range of hills and part of the National Forest. It borders Greater Manchester to the nor ...

over to his nephew

William Cavendish, Marquess of Hartington William John Robert Cavendish, Marquess of Hartington (10 December 1917 – 9 September 1944) was a British politician and British Army officer. He was the elder son of Edward Cavendish, 10th Duke of Devonshire, and therefore the heir to the Duke ...

Scientific research

In 1757 the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

(of which he was vice-president) awarded him the

Copley Medal The Copley Medal is an award given by the Royal Society, for "outstanding achievements in research in any branch of science". It alternates between the physical sciences or mathematics and the biological sciences. Given every year, the medal is t ...

for his work in the development of

thermometer A thermometer is a device that temperature measurement, measures temperature or a temperature gradient (the degree of hotness or coldness of an object). A thermometer has two important elements: (1) a temperature sensor (e.g. the bulb of a merc ...

s which recorded the maximum and minimum temperatures they had reached. Charles Cavendish was also one of the early experimenters with the electrical storage device, the

Leyden jar A Leyden jar (or Leiden jar, or archaically, sometimes Kleistian jar) is an electrical component that stores a high-voltage electric charge (from an external source) between electrical conductors on the inside and outside of a glass jar. It typi ...

, which came to England in 1746. His interest in electrical research was passed on to his son

Henry Henry may refer to: People *Henry (given name) *Henry (surname) * Henry Lau, Canadian singer and musician who performs under the mononym Henry Royalty * Portuguese royalty ** King-Cardinal Henry, King of Portugal ** Henry, Count of Portugal, ...

who was also a prominent member of the Royal Society. Henry Cavendish was even better known than his father for electrical experiments, and also for other discoveries in physics, including the famous torsion-balance measurement of the mass of the earth. One of Charles Cavendish's experiments with electricity appears to have been an attempt to replicate the plasma glow seen during the early

Francis Hauksbee Francis Hauksbee the Elder FRS (1660–1713), also known as Francis Hawksbee, was an 18th-century English scientist best known for his work on electricity and electrostatic repulsion. Biography Francis Hauksbee was the son of draper and common co ...

experiment with a semi-vacuum in the friction-generator's glass globe. A recent thesis on plasma arcs mentions Priestley's account of a replication of this by the experimenter Benjamin Wilson (1721–1788):

References

familysearch.org
Accessed 4 November 2007

Tracking Down the Origin of Arc Plasma Science. by André Anders

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cavendish, Charles, Lord 1704 births 1783 deaths Whig (British political party) MPs for English constituencies Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for constituencies in Wiltshire Younger sons of dukes Fellows of the Royal Society Recipients of the Copley Medal Charles Cavendish, Lord 18th-century British people Place of birth missing Place of death missing Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for constituencies in Derbyshire