Georg Wilhelm Richmann () (22 July 1711 – 6 August 1753), (

Old Style Old Style (O.S.) and New Style (N.S.) indicate dating systems before and after a calendar change, respectively. Usually, this is the change from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar as enacted in various European countries between 158 ...

: 11 July 1711 – 26 July 1753) was a

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

Imperial

physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate cau ...

Baltic German Baltic Germans (german: Deutsch-Balten or , later ) were ethnic German inhabitants of the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea, in what today are Estonia and Latvia. Since their coerced resettlement in 1939, Baltic Germans have markedly declined ...

descent. Richmann did pioneering work on electricity, atmospheric electricity, and calorimetry. He died by electrocution in

St. Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

when struck by apparent

ball lightning Ball lightning is a rare and unexplained phenomenon described as luminescent, spherical objects that vary from pea-sized to several meters in diameter. Though usually associated with thunderstorms, the observed phenomenon is reported to last ...

produced by an experiment attempting to ground the electrical discharge from a storm.

Early life and education

Georg Wilhelm Richmann was born on 22 July 1711 (

, 11 July 1711) in the city of Pernov (today

Pärnu Pärnu () is the fourth largest city in Estonia. Situated in southwest Estonia, Pärnu is located south of the Estonian capital, Tallinn, and west of Estonia's second largest city, Tartu. The city sits off the coast of Pärnu Bay, an inlet ...

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...

) in Swedish Livonia, which in 1721 became part of the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...

as a result of the

Great Northern War The Great Northern War (1700–1721) was a conflict in which a coalition led by the Tsardom of Russia successfully contested the supremacy of the Swedish Empire in Northern, Central and Eastern Europe. The initial leaders of the anti-Swed ...

. Of

descent, Richmann's father died of plague before he was born, and his mother remarried. In his early years he studied in Reval (today's

Tallinn Tallinn () is the most populous and capital city of Estonia. Situated on a bay in north Estonia, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, Tallinn has a population of 437,811 (as of 2022) and administratively lies in the Harju '' ...

); later he studied in

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

at the universities of Halle and

Jena Jena () is a German city and the second largest city in Thuringia. Together with the nearby cities of Erfurt and Weimar, it forms the central metropolitan area of Thuringia with approximately 500,000 inhabitants, while the city itself has a po ...

Career

Richmann was a

Imperial

. He did pioneering work on electricity and atmospheric electricity, and also worked on

calorimetry In chemistry and thermodynamics, calorimetry () is the science or act of measuring changes in ''state variables'' of a body for the purpose of deriving the heat transfer associated with changes of its state due, for example, to chemical reac ...

, in doing so collaborating with Mikhail Lomonosov. Richmann also worked as a tutor to the children of Count

Andrei Osterman Count Andrey Ivanovich Osterman (''Heinrich Johann Friedrich Ostermann''; russian: Андрей Иванович Остерман) (9 June 1686 31 May 1747) was a German-born Russian statesman who came to prominence under Tsar Peter I of Russia ...

. Richmann translated

Alexander Pope Alexander Pope (21 May 1688 O.S. – 30 May 1744) was an English poet, translator, and satirist of the Enlightenment era who is considered one of the most prominent English poets of the early 18th century. An exponent of Augustan literature, ...

's ''Essay on Man'' into German from French, which appeared in 1741. In that year, he was also elected a member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences.

Accidental death

Richmann was electrocuted in

on 6 August 1753 (

, 26 July 1753) while "trying to quantify the response of an insulated rod to a nearby storm." He is said to have been attending a meeting of the Academy of Sciences when he heard thunder, whereupon he ran home with his engraver to capture the event for posterity. While the experiment was underway, a discharge reported to have been

appeared and collided with Richmann's head leaving him with a red spot on his forehead, his shoes blown open, and parts of his clothes singed. The ball lightning arising from the apparatus was the cause of his death. An explosion followed "like that of a small Cannon" that knocked the engraver out, split the room's door frame, and tore the door off its hinges.Some but not all of the preceding details appear in Ronald W. Clarke's presentation of a description by Benjamin Franklin of the accident. See Richmann was apparently the first person in history to die while conducting electrical experiments. Mort du Richmann

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Richmann, Georg Wilhelm 1711 births 1753 deaths People from Pärnu People from Swedish Livonia Baltic-German people 18th-century German physicists 18th-century German inventors Physicists from the Russian Empire Inventors from the Russian Empire Full members of the Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences Deaths from lightning strikes University of Halle alumni University of Jena alumni Accidental deaths in Russia