Science and Spectacle in the European Enlightenment by Bernadette Bensaude-Vincent Christine Blondel

Author:Bernadette Bensaude-Vincent, Christine Blondel [Bernadette Bensaude-Vincent, Christine Blondel]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781351901871
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Published: 2016-12-05T00:00:00+00:00

Figure 5.1 Table showing portable electrical instruments: fig. 1 is a thunder-house, fig. 10 electric bells, fig. 12 a magic board, fig. 13 a luminous tube. Tiberius Cavallo, A treatise on electricity, 1795. Courtesy of the Bakken Library and Museum for Electricity in Life.

Electricity was spectacular even when it killed. In 1753 Georg Richmann, professor at St Petersburg, died struck by lightning while he was experimenting on atmospherical electricity. His sudden death, engraved by the artist he had wanted there so as to immortalize the astonishing effects of natural electricity, became an icon of the dangers deriving from dealing incautiously with the electric fire. However, while magazine readers would learn that atmospherical electricity could be extremely dangerous, electrical performers would show them how to play safely with the electric fire. Thanks to a number of electrical toys, the spectacle of electricity could easily – and safely – be replicated in their salons. During their demonstrations, lecturers would entertain and educate audiences by means of electric carillons, luminous tubes, apparatuses to produce ‘electric hail’, sparking candle lighters, electrical planetariums, magic boards and, later in the century, even the chemico-electrical pistol invented by Alessandro Volta (Figures 5.1 and 5.2).

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