John Peter Gassiot

John Peter Gassiot ( born April 2, 1797 in London, † August 15 1877 in Ryde on the Isle of Wight ) was a London merchant and amateur scientist.

He first served in the Royal Navy. In 1819 he married Elizabeth Scott, with whom he had a dozen children. In 1822 he founded with Sebastian Gonzalez Martinez Martinez Gassiot & Co., the company in which he drove cigars, port and sherry.

He was an avid amateur scientist with an interest in electricity. He founded a laboratory at his home in Clapham Common. From 1841, he worked with William Grove at William Grove. In 1841 he became a Fellow of the Royal Society. He founded the Scientific Relief Fund, and in 1845 the Chemical Society. Since that time, he conducted research on batteries and discovered 1852, the stratification of electrical discharge. In 1863 he was awarded the Royal Medal for his research on the Volta cell, for electricity, as well as discharge in rarefied gases.

He was also Head of the Kew Observatory.

Publications

• On the Observations made ​​with a rigid Sectroscope; London, 1867
• On the stratifications in Electrical Discharges, as Observed in Torricellian and other Vacua; London, 1859