Daniel Gralath, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death

Daniel Gralath

18th century physicist and mayor of Gdansk

Date of Birth: 30-May-1708

Place of Birth: Gdańsk, Pomeranian Voivodeship, Poland

Date of Death: 23-Jul-1767

Profession: physicist

Nationality: Germany

Zodiac Sign: Gemini

Daniel Gralath (30 May 1708 – 23 July 1767) was a physicist and a mayor of Danzig.Gralath was born in Danzig (Gdansk) in Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth into a well-to-do trade family.
He had studied law and philosophy in Halle, then in Leyden and Marburg from 1728 to 1734.
Later he became councilman and, in 1763, mayor of Danzig.
His father-in-law was Jacob Theodor Klein (1685–1759), a city secretary and also a very distinguished scientist, nicknamed Gedanensium Plinius.
He died in Danzig. As a physicist, Gralath worked on electricity, founded the Danzig Research Society, and repeated the experiments of Ewald Georg von Kleist with the Leyden jar.
Gralath improved the design and demonstrated its effects on a chain of 20 persons.
He was also the first to combine several jars to make a battery, but that claim is disputed.
From 1747 to 1756, he published his "History of Electricity" in three parts in issues of Versuche und Abhandlungen der Naturforschende Gesellschaft in Danzig, which may have contributed to the historical judgement that he was the first to combine several Leyden jars.