Francis Hauksbee

Francis Hauksbee the Elder, who lived from 1660 to 1713, was an English scientist best known for his work on electricity and electrostatic repulsion. The son of a Colchester draper, he was himself apprenticed as a draper in London before making air pumps and pneumatic engines, and he became Isaac Newton's laboratory assistant. He became a member of the Royal Society in 1703, gave his first experimental demonstration to it that December and was elected a Fellow in 1705, serving as its chief experimentalist although he was never formally appointed Curator of experiments and never received a fixed salary. A talented instrument maker and a creative experimenter, he studied the glow of mercury under barometric vacuum and was the first to observe that glass could be used for electrical experiments. He died in London in 1713 and John Theophilus Desaguliers succeeded him.