NOLLET, Jean Antoine, French physicist, was born at Pimprèz (now in Oise) on 19th November 1700, and died at Paris in 1770. He was of peasant origin, and was educated for the church, entering holy orders and ultimately attaining the rank of abbé; but his tastes all lay in the direction of experimental research, especially on the subject of electricity (see vol. viii. p. 6). In 1734 he was admitted a member of the London Royal Society, four years later he entered the Academy of Sciences at Paris, and in 1753 he was appointed to the newly-instituted chair of experimental physics in the Collège de Navarre. Nollet’s strength lay in popular exposition rather than in profound investigation, but he cannot be denied the credit of having greatly helped by his influence and example the cause of electrical science.