[3] On 15 December 1703, he made his first experimental demonstration to the Society (a new air-pump and the phenomenon of ‘mercurial phosphorus,’ a kind of electrostatic discharge).

He was never formally appointed as Curator of experiments, even though he fulfilled the functions customarily associated with that office, and he never received a fixed salary.

[1] He died at Hind Court and was buried in St Dunstan's-in-the-West, London on 29 April 1713.

[1] John Theophilus Desaguliers succeeded Hauksbee at the Royal Society, appointed as Demonstrator and Curator in 1714, by invitation from Isaac Newton, who was still President.

[7] Hauksbee's primary contributions were that he was a talented scientific instrument-maker[8] and a creative experimenter, who was able to discover unknown and unexpected phenomena, especially his observations about electrical attraction and repulsion.

[10] By 1705, Hauksbee had discovered that if he placed a small amount of mercury in the glass of his modified version of Otto von Guericke's generator, evacuated the air from it to create a mild vacuum and rubbed the ball in order to build up a charge, a glow was visible if he placed his hand on the outside of the ball.

[12] Hauksbee published accounts of his experiments in the Royal Society's journal Philosophical Transactions.