Species Nolletia zambesica

For Jean Antoine Nollet (1700–1770), French clergyman and physicist. He was the first professor of experimental physics at the University of Paris. His main research area was the new field of electricity. He constructed one of the first electrometers, invented the electroscope (a device to detect the presence of an electrical charge), developed a theory of electrical attraction and repulsion that supposed the existence of a continuous flow of electrical matter between charged bodies and is credited with the discovery of osmosis in natural membranes. He was a contemporary of Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790) and wrote many letters to him trying to discredit his experimental results. Nollet became a member of the Royal Society of London in 1734.