Timothy Lane

Timothy Lane was a British inventor and scientist, born in June 1734 and died on 5 July 1807. His father was an apothecary and he followed him, joining the Society of Apothecaries of London in 1757 and serving as its Master in 1801. His interests ranged across natural philosophy, chemistry, medicine and botany, and he was drawn above all to experiments on electricity of the kind Joseph Priestley was carrying out. In the 1760s he invented an instrument that measured the strength of the discharge of a Leyden jar, which Benjamin Franklin used in his study of atmospheric electricity and which became known as Lane's electrometer. With Henry Cavendish he also built a torpedo that could give electric shocks. His electrical work led to his election as a fellow of the Royal Society in 1770, to a place on the 1777 committee on the best shape for lightning rods, and to membership of the American Philosophical Society in 1772. In 1801 he patented measuring glasses for compounding medicines.