William Watson:
(London, 3 April 1715 – there, 10 May 1787).
English botanist and physician, but he became best known for his work on electricity.
Early in his career, he promoted Carl Linnaeus’s system in England.
In 1746, he covered the inside and outside of the Leiden bottle (condenser, invented by Pieter van Musschenbroek) with lead, increasing its capacity. He was also the first to observe a flash of light in the Leiden bottle. He also established that electricity could flow through a vacuum and he observed that there was a positive and a negative component of electricity. Another discovery of his was that electricity could flow but not be created or destroyed.
In 1747, he conducted an experiment to determine the speed of electricity. It was generally believed that electricity was faster than sound. Using a 6.4 km wire, he found that hardly any time difference could be determined at either end of the wire. However, he did establish a degree of resistance. Benjamin Franklin in particular continued to work on the theory surrounding electricity, with Watson as one of his main supporters.
What is so sweet and dear as a prosperous morn in May, the confident prime of the day.
