Format:
vii, 177 pages
,
illustrations
,
20 cm
ISBN:
9781785782077
,
178578207X
Series Statement:
Icon science
Content:
"Electricity was the scientific fashion of the Enlightenment, ‘an Entertainment for Angels, rather than for Men’. Lecturers attracted huge audiences to marvel at sparkling fountains, flaming drinks, pirouetting dancers and electrified boys. Enlightenment optimists predicted that this new-found power of nature would cure illnesses, improve crop production, even bring the dead back to life. Benjamin Franklin, better known as one of America’s founding fathers, played a key role in developing the new instruments and theories of electricity during the eighteenth century. Celebrated for drawing lightning down from the sky with a kite, Franklin was an Enlightenment expert on electricity, developing one of the most successful explanations of this mysterious phenomenon. But Patricia Fara, Senior Tutor of Clare College Cambridge, reveals how the study of electricity became intertwined with Enlightenment politics. By demonstrating their control of the natural world, Enlightenment philosophers hoped to gain authority over society. And their stunning electrical performances provided dramatic evidence of their special powers."--Jacket
Content:
Illuminations: the light of reason. Interpretations -- Electricity and enlightenment -- Shocking inventions: instruments. Robert Boyle and the air-pump -- Francis Hauksbee and the electrical machine -- Stephen Gray and the charity boy -- Pieter van Musschenbroek and the Leyden jar -- Lightning causes: applications. Benjamin Franklin -- Knobs or points? -- The business of medicine -- Therapeutic shocks -- Sparks of imagination: theories. Problems -- Fluids and atmospheres -- Theological aethers -- Measurement and mathematics -- The flow of life: current electricity. Henry Cavendish and the torpedo -- Luigi Galvani and his frogs -- Alessandro Volta and his pile -- Resuscitation
Note:
"Originally published in 2002 by Icon Books Ltd."--Title page verso
,
Includes bibliographical references (pages 171-177)
Language:
English
Keywords:
Elektrizität
;
Geschichte 1680-1790
;
Magnetismus
;
Geschichte 1680-1790
Author information:
Fara, Patricia 1948-
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