Benjamin Wilson (painter)

Benjamin Wilson ( born June 21, 1721 Leeds, † June 6, 1788 in London) was an English painter and scientist.

He was the 14th child of the draper Major Wilson from York. When his business was insolvent, Benjamin moved to London, where he was cleric and studied painting. 1746 and 1748-50 he was in Dublin, where he successfully practiced as a portrait painter. When he returned to London, he acquired Godfrey Kneller's former house and opened a portrait studio.

As a scientist, was Wilson opponent of Benjamin Franklin's idea of ​​positive and negative charges. He supported Isaac Newton's idea of ​​gravitational optical ether. The churches were wont to ring the bells during thunderstorms, and so died 1750-1783 about 100 300 bell-ringers to lightning. In convened by the Board of Ordnance Committee to clarify the lightning rod issue, he sat across from Franklin, whose lightning rods were pointed and influence outside the building. Wilson's lightning rod on the other hand ran from spherical and ended up a few feet below the highest point in the house.

In 1748 he found that the capacity of the Leyden jar is proportional to the area covered and inversely proportional to the wall thickness of the glass ( law of accumulation ).

He became in 1751 a member of the Royal Society in 1760 and received a gold medal for his electrical experiments.

Publications

• A Letter to the Marquiss of Rockingham, with Some Observations on the Effects of Lightening; in: Philosophical Transactions 54 (1764 ), pp. 246-253, p 249