Ebenezer Kinnersley

Ebenezer Kinnersley (* November 30, 1711 in Gloucester, † July 4, 1778 in Philadelphia ) was a native of England researcher and professor who explored along with Benjamin Franklin, the electricity and the means of protection against lightning, an electrical thermometer invented and current scientific knowledge of the time on numerous lectures propagated.

Life and work

Origin

Kinnersley was born the son of Sarah Turner and William Kinnersley in Gloucester in England. In 1714, as Kinnersley was three years old, the family emigrated to North America in the English colonies. His father was curate at the Pennepeck Baptist Church in Lower Dublin near Philadelphia. About the training of Kinnersley, there are no records. However, it is known that Kinnersley in 1739 moved to Philadelphia and Sarah Duffield married. Kinnersley worked in Philadelphia as a shopkeeper and preached occasionally in the Philadelphia Baptist Church.

Champion of the Enlightenment

During the height of the religious revival movement in Philadelphia, which was triggered by George Whitefield and other preachers in 1740, felt himself Kinnersley of their emotional style repelled and published writings against these " vile tirades ". He was then charged and convicted of his parish. His friend Benjamin Franklin had originally published his first response writings, but withdrew when the dispute escalated. His convictions of the Enlightenment, science and his belief in rational begründbarer religion and in a God who had created nature in a logical format, brought him into conflict with the revival movement.

Scientist

Since 1747 Kinnersley works closely with Franklin together with the experiments for the study of electricity. 1748 Kinnersley demonstrated that electrical current can flow through the water. For this he used a 10 -foot long trough that was filled with water. On Franklin's suggestion to Kinnersley went from 1749 on a lecture tour on electricity through the southern colonies. 1751 was followed by lecture tours about the " newly discovered electrical fire " to New York, Boston and Newport. On these trips he also reported on the effectiveness of the lightning rod in the prevention of damage due to lightning. In addition, he turned it against the various religious prejudices against the lightning rod.

Professor

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

In his last years Kinnersley again worked 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 better directed at higher temperatures. Its great merit lies in his work in the field of popularization of scientific knowledge. Kinnersley died on 4 July 1778 in Philadelphia.