Canton was born and spent his formative years in Stroud, Gloucestershire. Although he left school early in order to go into the family business, Canton continued to study in his own time. A Dissenting preacher from Stroud, Dr. Henry Miles, noticed his talent, and arranged for him to leave home, and eventually to become articled to Samuel Watkins, master of a school near to what is now Liverpool Street Station in London. Having served his apprenticeship from 1738-1745, Canton succeeded Watkins and kept the school until his death 27 years later. Henry Miles became FRS in 1743, and through him, Canton was able to mix in natural philosophical circles, and by the late 1740s, had acquired a reputation as an experimentalist. He was made FRS in 1749, despite being involved in a priority dispute over a novel method of making artificial magnets. His main field, however, was electrostatics. He was the first person in England to repeat the French experiments confirming Franklin's theories of lightning, and whilst doing this, became drawn to the mystery of the polarity of the charge on a cloud. He invented a portable electroscope to detect charge present in a system, and it is for experiments on electrostatic induction that Canton remains well-known. "Liberal in politics, latitudinarian in religion, devoted to his profession, schoolmaster Canton was one of the most distinguished of the group of self-made, self-educated men who were the best representatives of English physics in the mid-eighteenth century."1
1 J.L. Heilbron, Dictionary of Scientific Biography "Canton" p.52
An article about Canton was published in our
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Page last updated 1 November 2012