CANTON (John)

, an ingenious natural philosopher, was born at Stroud, in Gloucestershire, in 1718; and was placed, when young, under the care of Mr Davis, an able mathematician of that place, with whom he had learned both vulgar and decimal arithmetic before he was quite 9 years of age. He next proceeded to higher parts of the mathematics, and particularly to algebra and astronomy, in which he had made a considerable progress when his father took him from school, and set him to learn his own business, which was that | of a broad cloth weaver. This circumstance was not able to damp his zeal for acquiring knowledge. All his leisure time was devoted to the assiduous cultivation of astronomical science; by which he was soon able to calculate lunar eclipses and other phenomena, and to construct various kinds of sun-dials, even at times when he ought to have slept, being done without the knowledge and consent of his father, who feared that such studies might injure his health. It was during this prohibition, and at these hours, that he computed, and cut upon stone, with no better an instrument than a common knife, the lines of a large upright sun-dial, on which, beside the hour of the day, were shewn the sun's rising, his place in the ecliptic, and some other particulars. When this was finished and made known to his father, he permitted it to be placed against the front of his house, where it excited the admiration of several neighbouring gentlemen, and introduced young Canton to their acquaintance, which was followed by the offer of the use of their libraries. In the library of one of these gentlemen he found Martin's Philosophical Grammar, which was the first book that gave him a taste for natural philosophy. In the possession of another gentleman he first saw a pair of globes; a circumstance that afforded him great pleasure, from the great ease with which he could resolve those problems he had hitherto been accustomed to compute.

Among other persons with whom he became acquainted in early life, was Dr. Henry Miles of Tooting; who perceiving that young Canton possessed abilities too promising to be confined within the narrow limits of a country town, prevailed on his father to permit him to come up to London. Accordingly he arrived at the metropolis the 4th of March 1737, and resided with Dr. Miles at Tooting till the 6th of May following; when he articled himself, for the term of 5 years, as a clerk to Mr. Samuel Watkins, master of the academy in Spital Square. In this situation his ingenuity, diligence, and prudence, were so distinguished, that on the expiration of his clerkship in May 1742, he was taken into partnership with Mr. Watkins for 3 years; which gentleman he afterward succeeded in the school, and there continued during his whole life.

Towards the end of 1745, electricity received a great improvement by the discovery of the famous Leyden phial. This event turned the thoughts of most of the philosophers of Europe to that branch of natural philosophy; and our author, who was one of the first to repeat and to pursue the experiment, found his endeavours rewarded by many notable discoveries.—Towards the end of 1749, he was engaged with his friend, the late ingenious Benjamin Robins, in making experiments to determine the height to which rockets may be made to ascend, and at what distance their light may be seen. —In 1750 was read at the Royal Society, Mr. Canton's “Method of making Artificial Magnets, without the use of, and yet far superior to, any natural ones.” This paper procured him the honour of being elected a member of the Society, and the present of their gold medal. The same year he was complimented with the degree of M. A. by the university of Aberdeen. And in 1751 he was chosen one of the council of the Royal Society; an honour which was twice repeated afterwards.

In 1752, our philosopher was so fortunate as to be the first person in England who, by attracting the electric fire from the clouds during a thunder-storm, verified Dr. Franklin's hypothesis of the similarity of lightning and electricity. Next year his paper intitled “Electrical Experiments, with an attempt to account for their several phenomena,” was read at the Royal Society. In the same paper Mr. Canton mentioned his having discovered, by many experiments, that some clouds were in a positive, and some in a negative state of electricity: a discovery which was also made by Dr. Franklin in America much about the same time. This circumstance, together with our author's constant desence of the doctor's hypothesis, induced that excellent philosopher, on his arrival in England, to pay Mr. Canton a visit, and gave rise to a friendship which ever after continued between them.—In the Ladies' Diary for 1756, our author answered the prize query that had been proposed in the preceding year, concerning the meteor called shooting stars. The solution, though only signed A. M. was so satisfactory to his friend, the excellent mathematician Mr. Thomas Simpson, who then conducted that ingenious and useful little work, that he sent Mr. Canton the prize, accompanied with a note, in which he said he was sure that he was not mistaken in the author of it, as no one besides, that he knew of, could have given that answer.— Our philosopher's next communication to the public, was a letter in the Gentleman's Magazine for September 1759, on the electrical properties of the tourmalin, in which the laws of that wonderful stone are laid down in a very concise and elegant manner. On the 13th of December in the same year was read at the Royal Society, “An attempt to account for the Regular Diurnal Variation of the Horizontal Magnetic Needle; and also for its Irregular Variation at the time of an Aurora Borealis.” A complete year's observations of the diurnal variations of the needle are annexed to the paper. —Nov. 5, 1761, our author communicated to the Royal Society an account of the Transit of Venus of the 6th of June that year, observed in Spital Square. His next communication to the Society, was a Letter, read the 4th of Feb. 1762, containing some remarks on Mr. Delaval's electrical experiments. On the 16th of Dec. the same year, another curious addition was made by him to philosophical knowledge, in a paper, intitled, “Experiments to prove that Water is not Incompressible.” And on Nov. 8, the year following, were read before the Society, his farther “Experiments and Observations on the Compressibility of Water, and some other fluids.” These experiments are a complete refutation of the famous Florentine experiment, which so many philosophers have mentioned as a proof of the incompressibility of water. For this communication he had a second time the Society's prize gold medal.

Another communication was made by our author to the Society, on Dec. 22, 1768, being “An eafy method of making a phosphorus that will imbibe and emit light like the Bolognian Stone; with experiments and observations.” When he sirst shewed to Dr. Franklin the instantaneous light acquired by some of this phosphorus from the near discharge of an electrified bottle, the doctor immediately exclaimed, “And God said let there be light, and there was light.” |

The Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's having, in a letter, dated March 6, 1769, requested the opinion of the Royal Society relative to the best method of fixing electrical conductors to preserve that cathedral from damage by lightning, Mr. Canton was one of the committee appointed to take the letter into consideration, and to report their opinion upon it. The gentlemen joined with him in this business were, Mr. Delaval, Dr. Franklin, Dr. Watson, and Mr. Wilson. Their report was made on the 8th of June following: and the mode recommended by them has been carried into execution. —Our author's last communication to the Royal Society, was a paper read Dec. 21, 1769, containing “Experiments to prove that the Luminousness of the Sea arises from the Putrefaction of its animal Substances.”

Besides the papers above mentioned, Mr. Canton wrote a number of others, both in the earlier and the later parts of his life, which appeared in several publications, and particularly in the Gentleman's Magazine.— He died of a dropsy, the 22d of March 1772, in the 54th year of his age.