1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Nollet, Jean Antoine

NOLLET, JEAN ANTOINE (1700–1770), French physicist, of peasant origin, was born near Noyon (Oise) on the 19th of November 1700. He entered holy orders and ultimately attained the rank of abbé; but his tastes all lay in the direction of experimental research, especially on the subject of electricity. In 1734 he was admitted a member of the London Royal Society, four years later he entered the Academy of Sciences at Paris, and in 1753 he was appointed to the newly-instituted chair of experimental physics in the Collège de Navarre. In addition to many memoirs he wrote Leçons de physique expérimentale (1743), Essai sur l’électricité des corps (1747), Recherches sur les causes particulières des phénomènes électriques (1749 and 1754), Recueil de lettres sur l’électricité (1753), L’Art de faire les chapeaux (1764) and L’Art des expériences (1770). He died at Paris on the 24th of April 1770.