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Georg Wilhelm Richmann




He was born to a Baltic German family in Pernau (today ''Pärnu'', Estonia ) in what had been Swedish Livonia but became part of Imperial Russia as a result of the Great Northern War ( 1700 - 1721 ). His father died of Plague before he was born and his mother remarried. His early studies were in Reval (today Tallinn , Estonia), but he pursued university studies in Germany in Halle and Jena .

He became a member of the St. Petersburg Academy Of Sciences in 1741 . He did pioneering work in Russia on electricity and atmospheric electricity, and also worked on Calorimetry . He collaborated with Mikhail Lomonosov .

He worked as a tutor of the children of Count Andrei Osterman . In 1741 he translated a French translation of Alexander Pope 's ''Essay on Man'' into German .

He was killed in St. Petersburg by Ball Lightning while attempting a variation of Benjamin Franklin 's famous kite-flying lightning experiment. He was apparently the first person in history to die while conducting electrical experiments.


EXTERNAL LINKS

  • http://www.todayinsci.com/R/Richmann_Georg/RichmannGeorgExp.htm

  • http://archive.1september.ru/fiz/2003/32/no32_1.htm (in Russian)