Cornelis Krayenhoff

Cornelis Rudolphus Theodorus, Baron Krayenhoff, was a Dutch physicist, artist, general, hydraulic engineer and cartographer, born in Nijmegen in 1758 and briefly, and against his will, Dutch Minister of War. He studied philosophy and medicine from 1777 to 1783 and set up as a physician in Amsterdam after declining a medical chair at Franeker. He was an authority on electricity and lightning: in 1782 the spire of the Martinikerk in Doesburg became the first building in the Netherlands to carry a lightning conductor, and in 1787 he and Adriaan Paets van Troostwijk won first prize for an article on electricity. He presented physics experiments in the Felix Meritis society, joined the Hollandsche Maatschappij der Wetenschappen in 1791 and the Royal Institute in 1808, took part in the Patriot revolution of 1794 and 1795, and died in Nijmegen in 1840.