Daniel Gralath

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Daniel Gralath (* 30 May 1708 in Danzig (Gdansk); † 23 July 1767 in Danzig) was a German physicist and Bürgermeister (mayor) of Danzig.

Gralath was from a well-to-do Danzig trade family. He had studied law and philosophy in Halle, then in Leyden and Marburg from 1728 to 1734. Later he became Ratsherr (councilman) and, in 1763, Bürgermeister (mayor) of Danzig. His father-in-law was Jacob Theodor Klein (1685–1759), a city secretary and also a very distinguished scientist, nicknamed was Gedanensium Plinius.

As a physicist, Gralath worked on electricity, founded the Danzig Research Society, and repeated the experiments of Ewald Georg von Kleist like the Leyden jar. Gralath improved the design and demonstrated its effects on a chain of 20 persons. He was also the first to combine several jars to a battery. From 1747 to 1756, he published his "History of Electricity" with three volumes.

[edit] References

http://www.pg.gda.pl/archiwalne/januszajtis/2000/1.PDF http://www.worldwideschool.org/library/books/sci/history/AHistoryofScienceVolumeII/chap49.html