Ebenezer Kinnersley

Ebenezer Kinnersley (born November 30, 1711 in Gloucester , † July 4, 1778 in Philadelphia ) was a researcher and professor from England who, together with Benjamin Franklin , researched electricity and the possibilities of protection from lightning, invented an electric thermometer and the current scientific knowledge of the time propagated in numerous lectures.

life and work

origin

Kinnersley was born to Sarah Turner and William Kinnersley in Gloucester, England. In 1714, when Kinnersley was three years old, the family emigrated to North America in the English colonies. His father became a chaplain at Pennepeck Baptist Church in Lower Dublin near Philadelphia . There is no record of Kinnersley's education. It is known, however, that Kinnersley moved to Philadelphia in 1739 and married Sarah Duffield. Kinnersley worked as a shopkeeper in Philadelphia and occasionally preached at the Philadelphia Baptist Church.

Enlightenment champion

During the height of the religious revival in Philadelphia, which was sparked by George Whitefield and other preachers in 1740, Kinnersley felt repulsed by their emotional style and published writings against these "hideous tirades". He was then tried and sentenced by his parish. His friend Benjamin Franklin had originally published his first answers, but pulled back when the dispute escalated. His convictions of enlightenment, scientific nature and his belief in rationally justifiable religion and in a God who had created nature according to logical points of view, brought him into contradiction to the revival movement.

Electrical air thermometer , from a letter to Franklin written in 1761, reprinted in Philosophical Transactions, 1763

Natural scientist

Since 1747, Kinnersley worked closely with Franklin in his experiments on the study of electricity. In 1748, Kinnersley demonstrated that electricity can flow through water. To do this, he used a 10 foot long channel that was filled with water. At Franklin's suggestion, Kinnersley went from 1749 on a lecture tour on electricity through the southern colonies. 1751 followed lecture tours about the "newly discovered electric fire" to New York, Boston and Newport. During these trips he also reported on the effectiveness of the lightning rod in preventing damage from lightning strikes . He also turned against the various religious prejudices against the lightning rod.

professor

After returning from a trip to the Caribbean , he was proposed in 1753 by Benjamin Franklin as the new principal of the English School at the Philadelphia Academy, the predecessor of the University of Philadelphia. After the university was founded in 1755, he became a professor of English. In 1772, Kinnersley ended his university career as a popular professor due to his poor health.

In the last years of his life, Kinnersley worked again in the field of electricity and was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society . His greatest scientific achievement was the development of an electric air thermometer, with which he could prove that electric current is conducted better at higher temperatures. His great merit lies in his work in the field of popularizing scientific knowledge. Kinnersley died in Philadelphia on July 4, 1778.

Web links

• Philadelphia University in the Age of Franklin (Engl.)