Andrew Gordon (Benedictine)

Andrew Gordon (b. 15 June, 1712, at Cofforach in Forfarshire, Scotland; d. 22 August, 1751, at Erfurt, in Saxony) was a Scottish Benedictine monk, physicist, and inventor. He made the first electric motor.

Life

Having travelled extensively in continental Europe, Gordon became a Benedictine and in 1737 was appointed professor of natural philosophy in the University of Erfurt. He soon acquired considerable reputation by his works on electricity, among which were his "Phaenomena electricitatis exposita" (1744); "Philosophia utilis et jucunda" (1745); "Physicae experimentalis elementa" (1751-52).

For the sulphur ball of von Guericke (1671) and the glass globe of Isaac Newton (some say Hauksbee), Gordon substituted a glass cylinder which made an efficient frictional machine. Two other inventions in physics are noteworthy: the first is the light metallic star supported on a sharp pivot with the pointed ends bent at right angles to the rays and commonly called the "electrical whirl", the second is the device known as the "electric chimes". These inventions used to be described in textbooks of electricity; the name of Gordon was not always mentioned, though both inventions are fully described by him in his "Versuch einer Erklarung der Electricitat" (Erfurt 1745). Benjamin Franklin, who is usually credited with the latter invention, simply adopted the "German chimes" (described by Watson in his famous "Sequel", 1746) to serve as an electrical annunciator in connection with his experimental lightning rod of 1752. The "whirl" was an electrostatic reaction motor, the earliest of its kind; while the second derives its theoretical importance as the first instance of the application of what came to be called electric convection.