His father-in-law was Jacob Theodor Klein (1685–1759), a city secretary and also a very distinguished scientist, nicknamed Gedanensium Plinius.

The aim of the Society was to practice and popularize science, among others through weekly public demonstrations of the most interesting experiments in physics.

Known members were Nathanael Matthaeus von Wolf, Michael Christoph Hanow, Gottfried Lengnich, Johann Jacob Mascov, who wrote the Geschichte der Teutschen, also Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit and the prince-bishop Adam Stanisław Grabowski.

The sessions of the Society were also attended by many famous persons of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth like Great Lithuanian Hetman Michał Kazimierz "Rybeńko" Radziwiłł, August Fryderyk Moszyński, Joachim Chreptowicz.

After the annexation of the city by Prussia in the Second Partition of Poland and during the Napoleonic Wars, the organization fell into such decline that in 1812 it was proposed to dissolve it, however, several members decided to continue its activity.