Jean-Antoine Nollet

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Jean-Antoine Nollet

1700-1770

French scientist who made important scientific contributions to the field of electricity. He also aimed at teaching and popularizing physics with the use of instruments. To this end Nollet gave lectures in many schools of engineering and to Europe's haute bourgeoisie. His lectures gathered in the Leçons de physique expérimentale (6 vols., 1743-64) along with L'Art des expériences (3 vols., 1770)—explaining how to build instruments—were so successful they inspired selftaught scientists until the twentieth century.