Robert Symmer
Robert Symmer FRS (* 1707, † 1763) was a Scottish philosopher and physicist who became known in particular for his millenarian theory of electricity with the Fluidumshypothese.
Life
Symmers theory
1759 published Symmer, a Fellow of the Royal Society his first and probably at the same time single post about his understanding of electricity in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, a statement issued by the Royal Society journal. This treatise entitled New Experiments and Observations Concerning Electricity appeared there in four parts with the titles
- Of the Electricity of the Human Body and the Animal Substances Silk and Wool ( February 1759, pp. 340-347 )
- Of the Electricity of Black and White Silk (May 1759 pp. 348-358 )
- Of Electrical Cohesion ( June 1759, pp. 359-370 )
- Of Two Distinct Powers in the Electricity ( December 1759, pp. 371-389 ).
The fact essentially assertion made was that electricity does not appear as a single force such as the followers of Benjamin Franklin and Giambatista Beccaria believed, but. In two equal, separate, antagonistic forces that are likely embodied in two different and countervailing liquids
The starting point of this theory was its finding that repel two of deprivation: when he observed two pair of superimposed worn silk and woolen stockings, noted Symmer that the two repel "negative" charged stockings each other. The fact that two deficiencies but exert a force on each other, could not understand the Franklin 's model. Because of its subsequent habit of rubbing the worn socks to objects, he received the nickname " The Barefoot Philosopher ".
Although his theory in England no attention has been paid, received his view abroad consent: middle of the 18th century were the most electricity researchers such as Jean -Antoine Nollet, Franz Maria Aepinus, Johan Carl Wilcke, Anton Brugmans ( 1732-1789 ) or Torbern Olof Bergman European supporters of the theory of dualistic electricity Symmer as a restorer, or even as an inventor, the two-fluid theory (two- fluid theory ) considered. From other his theory was regarded as a revival of the theory of Charles du Fay, who went out in 1733 by two kinds of electricity, and this electricity than glass ( Electricité vitreuse ) and resin Electricity ( Electricité résineuse ) designated.
Criticism of Symmers theory
However, modern historians of science are not a little kinder to his views as the compatriots of his time. The reasons for this are obvious, as most reports on electricity in the 18th century were descended from Jason Priestley, The History and Present State of Electricity (1767 ) which, while fairly treated the dualistic position, but on the other hand, missed no opportunity to mock Symmers. However, Mathurin -Jacques Brisson in particular contributed by its inaccurate French translation of Priestley's "History" and the contained therein discrepancy between the mocking treatment Symmers in the English original and its milder presentation in French Histoire de l' Electricité to observe the theory Symmers.
The historian of science I. Bernard Cohen, one of the most respected contemporary connoisseurs Franklin expressed later in his book, Franklin and Newton: An Inquiry into Speculative Newtonian Experimental Science and Franklin 's Work in Electricity as in Example thereof (1956 ) lack of understanding that Symmers restoration experiments at all attention has been given.