John George Children, an English electrician, born at Ferox Hall, Tunbridge, May 18, 1777, died Jan. 1, 1852. He was educated at Cambridge for the church, but his wife dying, he travelled for some time in the south of Europe and the United States, and then devoted himself wholly to scientific pursuits. In 1808 he published in the "Philosophical Transactions" an account of a series of experiments confirmatory of Davy's view that electric intensity increases with the number of voltaic plates, and the quantity of electricity with the extent of surface. In 1815 he continued the subject in the "Philosophical Transactions," relating among other interesting results the conversion of iron into steel by union with diamond. Subsequently he discovered a method of extracting silver from its ore without amalgamation. Besides the papers above mentioned, he published translations of Berzelius "On the Blowpipe," and Thenard "On Chemical Analysis;" he also assisted to establish and edit the "Zoological Journal." He was for some years secretary of the royal society, and one of the librarians of the natural history department in the British museum.