Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Brook, Abraham
BROOK, ABRAHAM (fl. 1789), physicist, was a bookseller of Norwich. He published at Norwich in 1789 a quarto volume of 'Miscellaneous Experiments and Remarks on Electricity, the Air Pump, and the Barometer, with a description of an Electrometer of a new construction.' The work was translated into German and published at Leipzig in 1790. A paper by him, 'Of a new Electrometer,' appeared in the 'Philosophical Transactions' (abridg. xv. 308), 1782. Testimony to Brook's scientific ability will be found in the same volume (p. 702) in an article by Wm. Morgan on electrical experiments : 'I cannot conclude this paper,' he says, 'without acknowledging my obligations 'to the ingenious Mr. Brook of Norwich, who, by communicating to me his method of boiling mercury, has been the chief cause of my success in these experiments.'
[Notes and Queries, 3rd ser. v. 355; Watt's Bibl. Brit. i. 154; Phil. Trans, abr. xv. 308, 702.]