Abraham Bennet

Abraham Bennet (* 1749, † May 5, 1799 in Wirksworth, Derbyshire ) was an English clergyman, inventor and member of the Royal Society.

His parents were the schoolmaster in Whaley Lane, Cheshire Abraham Bennet and Ann, born Fallowes. He was baptized on 20 December 1749 Taxal, Derbyshire. Whether he went to college, is not known. He was a teacher at Wirksworth Grammar School. After he was ordained in 1775 in London, he was curate in Tideswell and the following year also in Wirksworth. He was also rector in the village of Fenny Bentley.

He was interested in natural philosophy and the works of John Canton, Tiberius Cavallo and Alessandro Volta, whom he met in London in 1782. 1786, he improved Cavallo portable electrometer from 1779 and developed the gold-leaf electroscope, which was used until the 1930s for the study of cosmic rays. He also invented a so-called " multiplier ", a simple Influenzmaschine and observed the appearance of charges on evaporating liquids. His works he published in 1789 in New experiments on electricity. In the same year he became a member of the Royal Society.

He was also a member of the Lunar Society and founded by Erasmus Darwin 1783 Derby Philosophical Society.