Researching William Watson

In 1746, he showed that the capacity of the Leyden jar could be increased by coating it inside and out with lead foil. In the same, year he proposed that the two types of electricity—vitreous and resinous—posited by DuFay were actually a surplus (a positive charge) and a deficiency (a negative charge) of a single fluid which he called electrical ether, and that the quantity of electrical charge was conserved. He acknowledged that the same theory had been independently developed at the same time by Benjamin Franklin—the two men later became allies in both scientific and political matters. He also suggested that electricity is more akin to magnetism and light than to a fluid, since it passes through glass and cloth, and can be concentrated as a spark to light up flammable materials.

On 14 August 1747 he made an experiment to conduct electricity through a 6,732 foot long wire at Shooter's Hill in London. At another experiment he made, the wire was 12,276 feet. Previous experiments in France had only tried shorter distances.

Born in Edinburgh on 30 April 1931, he attended Edinburgh Academy and then entered Edinburgh and Oxford universities but did not complete either course.

He commenced writing novels in 1969 with Better than One and then wrote two historical novels. The first, titled Beltran in Exile (1979) was about the Knights Templar after the end of the Crusades in Palestine. The Knight on the Bridge (1982) is about the Cathars. These two latter books are generally regarded as his best works.

Between 1970 and 1972 he wrote three plays; Footstool for God, set in Rosslyn Chapel, The Larch and Dodwell's Last Trump. He also co-wrote Sawney Bean with Robert Nye in 1970, and, with Nye, Stanley Eveling, Alan Jackson, Clarisse Eriksson, John Downing and David Mowat an adaptation of Dracula which premiered in Edinburgh in 1969, and in London in 1972.

He wrote six spy thrillers under the nom-de-plume of J K Mayo between 1986 and 1997 using a middle-aged, irritable, Gauloise-smoking ex-army Colonel named Harry Seddall as his hero for these popular books. An interesting aside is his apparent enjoyment of using little-known and obscure words to enhance his excellent descriptions of places and intelligent conversations throughout the books.

He died in an Edinburgh nursing home on 5 December 2005 after a long illness.

He left a wife Catherine Robins.

Watson was born in Campbells Creek, Victoria and was educated at Guildford State School. He left school at 13 and was variously a manual labourer, miner, navvy, bricklayer, plasterer, axeman, dairyman, farmer and commercial traveller before operating his own grocery shop in Melbourne from 1889 to 1895. In 1895, he moved to Western Australia and settled in Fremantle, where he opened the Watson Supply Stores. Watson's business began with a grocery store and tea room in Fremantle and another store in Perth, but expanded over decades to include a bacon factory and abattoir at Spearwood, butter and dairy factories and a large international export operation in bacon and ham. He also became known as a generous local benefactor, particularly towards returned soldiers after two of his sons were killed in World War I; he made a large donation towards the construction of the Fremantle War Memorial and was made an honorary member of the Fremantle branch of the Returned and Services League.

In 1922, he was elected to the Australian House of Representatives as an independent representing the seat of Fremantle. Watson was an outspoken opponent of the party system throughout his career, believing that it "prevented men giving their best service to the country and it made them decidedly dishonest, although they would rather it not be so"; however, politically he usually voted with the conservative parties in the House. He held the seat until he retired in 1928, citing his frustration with the political system and his inability to "mitigate the sectional division in parliament". He was re-elected to the House in 1931 - defeating John Curtin - citing his concern about the governmental response to the Great Depression for his decision to return to politics. However, he retired for a final time in 1934, stating that he had decided not to seek re-election unless it was proved to him that it "would be of some definite advantage to the people" if he were to be returned and this had not occurred.

Watson retired from the business in July 1937 and sold it to his three sons. He died at his home in Peppermint Grove in December 1938 and was buried in the Methodist section of Fremantle Cemetery.

Watson married Eliza Annie Showell on 2 April 1888 at Campbells Creek. They had ten children, with two sons dying in World War I and two daughters also predeceasing them.

Watson did not live to see Curtin become Prime Minister in 1941. Curtin was a pallbearer at Watson's funeral, describing him as a "generous and friendly opponent".

He was the son of Sir William Watson the physicist, educated at Charterhouse School, and Queens' College and Gonville and Caius College of the University of Cambridge. He graduated M.B in 1766 and M.D. in 1771, and went into practice as a physician in Bath.

Watson was a friend and associate of William Herschel, whom he met by chance in Bath in 1779.

He was born at Stone Bridge in County Armagh to farmer James Watson and Sarah McLean. He was a wine merchant and pastoralist before entering politics. Around 1875 he married Georgina Hawkins, with whom he had a son. In 1880 he was elected to the New South Wales Legislative Assembly for Young, but he did not re-contest in 1882. His narrow victory in 1885 was overturned on appeal and James Mackinnon was installed in his place. Watson did not return to politics and died in Sydney in 1886.

He was born at Winchelsea in Sussex, the illegitimate son of Bourn Russell and Elizabeth Watson. He migrated to New South Wales around 1829. He was a soda water and cordial manufacturer, and on 29 January 1842 married Esther Emma Leach, with whom he had thirteen children. In 1874 he was elected to the New South Wales Legislative Assembly for Williams, but he resigned in 1877 and died in Sydney later the same year.

After education at King's College School, Watson studied under Arthur William Rucker and C. V. Boys at the Royal College of Science and received his bachelor's degree in 1890. At the Royal College of Science, Watson was appointed demonstrator in physics in 1890, assistant professor in 1897, and professor in 1915. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1901.

At the beginning of his career, Watson was an assistant to Professors A. W. Rucker and Thomas Edward Thorpe in the great magnetic survey of the British Isles from 1890 to 1895. He assisted C. V. Boys in radio-micrometer experiments, in timing the periodicity of spark generators' electrical discharges, and in photographing the flight of bullets. He worked with J. W. Rodger in investigating the magnetic rotation of the plane of polarisation in liquids. He designed and built self-recording magnetographs which were used at Kew, Eskdalemuir, and other observatories. His textbooks of physics, Textbook of Physics, Intermediate Physics, and Practical Physics, became popular and were widely used.

As a member of the Expert and Technical Committee of the Royal Automobile Club, Watson created specially designed instruments to investigate and develop the petrol motor. He assisted W. de W. Abney in experiments on colour vision.

Upon the poison gas attacks in April 1915, Watson was sent to France to experiment with defensive countermeasures and in May 1915 made the first Allied experiments on a gas-cloud in the field. In June 1915, the British Army established the Central Laboratory with Watson as director. He was personally involved in the systematic collection and examination of the German shells and fuses used for the gas attacks. During these field investigations he was frequently gassed with a variety of poisons. In the last great gas attack of the war, Watson was a victim and eventually succumbed in hospital. He is commemorated on the war memorial at Golders Green Crematorium.

In addition to the Royal Automobile Club, Watson was a member of the Savile Club.