The first French experiments with the Leyden Jar. Jean-Antoine Nollet (November 19, 1700 - April 25, 1770) was a French clergyman and physicist. As a priest, he was also known as Abb矇 Nollet. He was primarily interested in the new science of electricity. He joined the Royal Society of London in 1734 and later became the first professor of experimental physics at the University of Paris. In 1746 he gathered about two hundred monks into a circle about a mile in circumference, with pieces of iron wire connecting them. He then discharged a battery of Leyden jars through the human chain and observed that each man reacted at substantially the same time to the electric shock, showing that the speed of electricity's propagation was very high. In 1748 he discovered the phenomenon of osmosis in natural membranes. He died in 1770 at the age of 69. This image has been color enhanced.