showed beyond a doubt that the positive and negative theory was correct. From Boston he went to Newport, R. I., and in March, 1752, repeated his lectures there and suggested how houses and barns might be protected from lightning. This was three months before the time that Franklin drew the electricity from the clouds. He then visited New York and lectured on the subject. In 1753 Mr. Kinnersley was elected chief master in the College of Philadelphia, and in 1755 he was appointed professor of English and oratory, holding the office until 1772, when, owing to failing health, he resigned. In 1757 Dr. Franklin went to London as agent for Pennsylvania. Mr. Kinnersley continued his experiments, invented an electrical thermometer, and proved that heat could be produced by electricity, which was not known before. In 1764 he published a syllabus of his lectures on electricity, a copy of which is in the Philadelphia library. This pamphlet gave in detail most of the experiments that he performed, among others an orrery propelled by electricity; and he suggested that perhaps the solar system might be sustained in the same way. In this country he was better known than Franklin, and even in Europe his name was very frequently mentioned, as may be seen in Dr. Joseph Priestley's “History of Electricity,” and in a volume published by the Abbé Beccaria, of the University of Turin. Both have paid Prof. Kinnersley high honor. He became a member of the Lower Dublin Baptist church while young, and in 1743 was ordained as a minister, but he never acted as a pastor. The American philosophical society chose him as a member, and the degree of M. A. was conferred upon him by the College of Philadelphia. There is a window in his memory at the University of Pennsylvania.
KINNEY, Coates, poet, b. near Penn Yan,
Yates co., N. Y., 24 Nov., 1826. He was partly
educated at Antioch college, Yellow Springs, Ohio,
studied law with Thomas Corwin, and was admitted
to the bar in Cincinnati. After practising
about three years he engaged in journalism, editing
the daily Cincinnati “Times” and the “Ohio
State Journal.” He was a paymaster in the U. S.
army from June, 1861, till November, 1865, and
was mustered out with the commission of brevet
lieutenant-colonel of volunteers. He was a delegate
to the convention that nominated Gen. Grant
for the presidency in 1868, and its Ohio secretary.
In 1882-'3 he was senator from the 5th district in
the Ohio legislature, and delivered a speech against
“The Official Railroad Pass.” He has published
“Ke-u-ka and Other Poems” (Cincinnati, 1855),
and has written several minor lyrics, of which
“The Rain on the Roof,” which has been set to
music, is the most popular.
KINNEY, John Fitch, jurist, b. in New Haven,
Oswego co., N. Y., 2 April, 1816. After receiving
an academic education, he studied law and settled
in Marysville, Ohio, where he was admitted to the
bar in 1837. In 1839 he removed to Mount Vernon,
Ohio, practising law there till 1844, and then
removed to Lee county, Iowa. He became secretary
of the legislative council for Iowa territory,
and also district attorney, and on the admission of
Iowa as a state was appointed a judge of the
supreme court, holding this office two years, after
which he was elected to the same office by the
legislature for a term of six years. In 1853 he
was appointed by President Pierce chief justice of
the supreme court of Utah, to which office he
was again appointed in 1860. He was elected a
delegate to congress as a Democrat, and served
from 7 Dec., 1863, till 3 March, 1865.
KINNEY, Jonathan Kendrick, lawyer, b. in
Royalton, Windsor co., Vt., 26 Oct., 1843. He is
a great-grandson of the Rev. Jonathan Kinney,
and was educated in the common schools of his
native town, and at the Royalton academy. He
served in the volunteer army in the civil war, and
at its close engaged in business in the west, and
later entered the Harvard law-school, where he
was graduated in 1875. He has since practised his
profession, reported cases, and contributed to legal
periodicals. He has published “A Digest of the
Decisions of the Supreme Court of the United
States” (Boston, 1887), and edited the “Law of
Railways,” by Isaac F. Redfield (1887).
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KINNEY, William Burnet, journalist, b. in Speedwell, Morris co., N. J., 4 Sept., 1799; d. in New York city, 21 Oct., 1880. His grandfather, Sir Thomas Kinney, came to this country before the Revolution to explore the mineral resources of New Jersey. William Burnet received a good education, and subsequently studied law under Joseph C. Hornblower. In 1820 he began the life of an editor in Newark, N. J., which, with one or two interruptions, he continued to lead until his appointment, in 1851, as U. S. minister to Sardinia. Prior to this event he had been conspicuous in various public capacities, and among them as a delegate, in 1844, to the Baltimore Whig convention, where he was largely instrumental in securing the nomination of his friend, Theodore Frelinghuysen, for the vice-presidency, with Henry Clay. While minister at Turin he discussed with Count Cavour and other eminent men of the kingdom of Sardinia the movement for the unification of Italy. He rendered also, at the same time, important services to Great Britain, for which he received an acknowledgment in a special despatch from Lord Palmerston. When the U. S. government offered to transport Kossuth to the United States in a national ship, detached from the Mediterranean squadron. Mr. Kinney made himself acquainted with the aims and purposes of the Hungarian exile, and gave prompt instructions to the commander, and information to his own government, of the objects of the fugitive. Daniel Webster, who was at that time secretary of state, thwarted Kossuth's philanthropic but impracticable efforts to enlist the United States in a foreign complication. On the expiration of his term of office he removed from Turin to Florence, where he devoted much of his time to making additions to the new information, which his post had enabled him to acquire, relative to the Medici family, with a view to producing a historical work, which promised to be of great importance, but he did not live to accomplish it. — His wife, Elizabeth Clementine, poet, b. in New York city, 18 Dec., 1810; d. in Summit, N. J., 19 Nov., 1889. She was the daughter of David L. Dodge, and her first husband was Edmund B. Stedman, a merchant of Hartford, Conn. She contributed to periodical literature, and published “Felicita, a Metrical Romance” (New York, 1855); “Poems” (1867); and “Bianca Capello,” a tragedy founded on Italian history, and written during her residence abroad (1873).
