Daniel Gralath (30 May 1708 – 23 July 1767) was a physicist and a mayor of Danzig. Gralath was born and died in Danzig (

Gdańsk Gdańsk ( , also ; ; csb, Gduńsk;Stefan Ramułt, ''Słownik języka pomorskiego, czyli kaszubskiego'', Kraków 1893, Gdańsk 2003, ISBN 83-87408-64-6. , Johann Georg Theodor Grässe, ''Orbis latinus oder Verzeichniss der lateinischen Benen ...

) in the

Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, formally known as the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and, after 1791, as the Commonwealth of Poland, was a bi-confederal state, sometimes called a federation, of Crown of the Kingdom of ...

. He came from a well-to-do trade family. He studied law and philosophy in Halle,

Leyden Leiden (; in English and archaic Dutch also Leyden) is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland, Netherlands. The municipality of Leiden has a population of 119,713, but the city forms one densely connected agglomeration with ...

and

Marburg Marburg ( or ) is a university town in the German federal state (''Bundesland'') of Hesse, capital of the Marburg-Biedenkopf district (''Landkreis''). The town area spreads along the valley of the river Lahn and has a population of approximate ...

from 1728 to 1734. Later he became councilman and, in 1763, mayor of Danzig. His father-in-law was

Jacob Theodor Klein Jacob Theodor Klein (nickname ''Plinius Gedanensium''; 15 August 1685 – 27 February 1759) was a German jurist, historian, botanist, zoologist, mathematician and diplomat in service of Polish King August II the Strong. Life Klein was born on 15 ...

(1685–1759), a city secretary and a distinguished scientist, nicknamed ''Gedanensium Plinius''. As a physicist, Gralath worked on

electricity Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter that has a property of electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as described ...

, founded the

Danzig Research Society The Naturforschende Gesellschaft in Danzig (translated Danzig Research Society, la, Societas Physicae Experimentalis, pl, Gdańskie Towarzystwo Przyrodnicze) was a scientific organization, founded in 1743 in Danzig ( Gdańsk), Poland, which cont ...

, and repeated the experiments of

Ewald Georg von Kleist A member of the von Kleist family, Ewald was born in Wicewo (Wicewo) in Farther Pomerania. He studied jurisprudence at the University of Leipzig and the University of Leyden and may have started his interest in electricity at the latter universit ...

with 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 ...

. Gralath improved the design of the Leyden jar and demonstrated its effects on a chain of 20 persons. He was also the first to combine several jars to make a

battery Battery most often refers to: * Electric battery, a device that provides electrical power * Battery (crime), a crime involving unlawful physical contact Battery may also refer to: Energy source *Automotive battery, a device to provide power t ...

, but that claim is disputed. From 1747 to 1756, he published his "History of Electricity" in three parts in issues of ''Versuche und Abhandlungen der Naturforschende Gesellschaft in Danzig'', which may have contributed to the historical judgement that he was the first to combine several Leyden jars.

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Further reading