Abraham Bennet

views updated

Abraham Bennet

1750-1799

English physicist and inventor who invented the gold-leaf electroscope, an instrument used to detect electric charge. A gold-leaf electroscope contains two thin strips of gold that hang from either end of a rod. When the rod is electrically charged, the gold strips repel each other and spread apart. Bennet also invented a device called an electrical doubler. It was designed to multiply a small electrical charge until the charge was large enough to be detected by other instruments.

More From encyclopedia.com

About this article

Abraham Bennet

Updated About encyclopedia.com content Print Article

You Might Also Like