NOLLET, JEAN ANTOINE, regius professor of physics in the College of Navarre, and member of the Academy of Sciences at Paris, of the Royal Society of London, of the Institution of Bologna, and of the Academy of Sciences of Erfurt, was born at Pimbré, in the diocese of Noyon, on the 17th of November 1700. He was the son of respectable but not wealthy parents, who, to make up for the want of riches, determined to give their son a good education. They sent him to the College of Clermont in Beauvoisin, and afterwards to Beauvais, there to finish his introductory studies. The progress which he made in the different classes decided them to send him to study philosophy at Paris; and having intended him for the clerical order, they considered the strictness and purity of his morals, together with his unwearied application to study, as sufficient proofs of his vocation. The young Nollet yielded without reluctance to the wishes of his parents. As soon as he was capable of showing an inclination for any thing, he had discovered a taste for physics; but this had not become his ruling passion; and he therefore sacrificed it to the study of scholastic divinity, to which he wholly dedicated himself during the time of his probation in 1728. No sooner had he been invested with the deaconship, than he solicited and obtained a license to preach. This new occupation, however, did not make him entirely lose sight of those studies which had first engaged his attention, and insensibly began to occupy a greater portion of his time, which was now more equally divided between theology and the sciences. The latter, however, prevailed; and thenceforth he entered upon the study of physics with an ardour which was only increased by that kind of privation to which he had been long subject. He was received into the Society of Arts established at Paris under the patronage of the Count de Clermont. In 1730, the Abbé Nollet was engaged in a work in conjunction with Reaumur and Dufay of the Academy of Sciences. In 1734 he went to London in company with M. Dufay, Duhamel, and Jussieu; and his merit procured him a place in the Royal Society without any solicitation. Two years afterwards, he went to Holland, where he formed an intimate connection with Desaguliers, s'Gravesande, and Muschenbroeck. On his return to Paris, he resumed the course of experimental physics which he had begun in 1735, and which he continued till 1760. These courses of physics first suggested the idea of giving particular courses in other branches of science, such as in chemistry, anatomy, and
Nomades natural history. In 1738, the Count de Maurepas prevailed on Cardinal Fleury to establish a public class for experimental physics; and the Abbé Nollet was appointed the first professor. In the beginning of the year 1739, he was admitted a member of the Royal Academy of Sciences; and in the month of April following, the king of Sardinia, intending to establish a professorship of physics at Turin, invited the Abbé Nollet to visit his dominions. In 1744, he was honoured with an invitation to Versailles, to instruct the dauphin in experimental philosophy; and the king and royal family were often present at his lectures. The young prince, until the period of his death, showed marks of the strongest attachment to this ingenious philosopher; and even prevailed upon him to go and pay court to a man in power whose patronage might be of service to him. The Abbé Nollet accordingly waited upon the place-man, and made him a present of his works. "I never read any works of that kind," said the patron coldly, at the same time casting a look at the volumes before him. "Sir," replied the Abbé, "will you allow them to remain in your antichamber? There, perhaps, there may be found men of genius who will read them with pleasure." In the month of April 1749, he made a tour in Italy, having been sent thither for the purpose of making observations. At Turin, Venice, and Bologna, the Abbé Nollet appeared as a deputy from the philosophers of the rest of Europe. During his short stay in Italy, the wonders of electricity were not the only object of his researches; every part of physics, the arts, and agriculture, came equally under his notice. Upon his return through Turin, the king of Sardinia, sensible of his merit, offered him the order of St Maurice, which, however, he did not think proper to accept without his sovereign's permission. In 1753 the king instituted a class of experimental philosophy in the Royal College of Navarre, and appointed the Abbé Nollet professor. In 1757 he received from the king a brevet appointing him preceptor in physics and natural history to the Enfants de la France. In the month of August the same year he was appointed professor of experimental philosophy in the school of artillery, which was at that time established at La Fère. In the month of November following, he was admitted as a pensionary of the Royal Academy of Sciences. M. de Cremille, director-general of artillery and fortification, having founded a class of experimental philosophy at Mezières in 1761, the Abbé Nollet was appointed professor. This celebrated and laborious philosopher, who rendered the most important services to physics by the discoveries with which he has enriched every branch of this science, but particularly electricity, died at Paris on the 25th of April 1770, aged seventy. His works are, 1. Several Papers inserted in the Memoirs of the Academy of Sciences, amongst which one on the Hearing of Fishes is particularly valuable; 2. Leçons de Physique Expérimentale, in six vols. 12mo; 3. Recueil de Lettres sur l'Electricité, three vols. 12mo, 1753; 4. Essai sur l'Electricité des Corps, one vol. 12mo; 5. Recherches sur les Causes particulières des Phénomènes Électriques, one vol. 12mo; 6. L'An des Expériences, three vols. 12mo, 1770.