1693-1771

English physician and astronomer who discovered the crab nebula (1731). In 1745 Bevis decided to publish a new star atlas. His Uranographia Britannica was to have consisted of 52 large plates of the sky with accompanying explanations. However, just before the work was to go to press the publisher went bankrupt and the plates were sequestered. Bevis also suggested the feature retained by all modern capacitors of two conductors separated by an insulating, or dielectric, layer (1747).