Hauksbee Electrostatic Machine, 1709
Francis Hauksbee the Elder (1660-1713) was an English scientist. In 1678 he became Newton's lab assistant. In 1703 he was appointed curator, instrument maker and experimentalist of the Royal Society. In 1705 Hauksbee discovered that if he placed a small amount of mercury in the glass of his modified version of von Guericke's generator, evacuated the air from it to create a mild vacuum and rubbed the ball in order to build up a charge, a glow was visible if he placed his hand on the outside of the ball. The glow was bright enough to read by. This effect became the basis of the gas-discharge lamp, which led to neon lighting and mercury vapor lamps. In 1706 he produced an "Influence machine" to generate this effect. He continued to experiment with electricity, making numerous observations and developing machines to generate and demonstrate various electrical phenomena. In 1709 he published Physico-Mechanical Experiments on Various Subjects which summarized much of his scientific work.
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