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    An Entertainment for Angels (Icon Science): Electricity in the Enlightenment
    Unavailable
    An Entertainment for Angels (Icon Science): Electricity in the Enlightenment
    Unavailable
    An Entertainment for Angels (Icon Science): Electricity in the Enlightenment
    Ebook154 pages1 hour

    An Entertainment for Angels (Icon Science): Electricity in the Enlightenment

    By Patricia Fara

    3/5

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    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    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.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherIcon Books
    Release dateJul 20, 2017
    ISBN9781785782176
    Unavailable
    An Entertainment for Angels (Icon Science): Electricity in the Enlightenment
    Author

    Patricia Fara

    Patricia Fara is a Fellow of Clare College, Cambridge, where she lectures on the history of science. She is the author of two books on scientific history for general readers, including Newton: The Making of Genius (2002) as well as numerous articles and reviews for academic and popular publications.

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    Reviews for An Entertainment for Angels (Icon Science)

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    • 3/5
      Noted science historian Patricia Fara details the history of electrical discoveries and innovations from Newton to Volta, threading together the lives of Benjamin Franklin, Mary Shelley, Henry Cavendish, and many other "natural philosophers" of the 18th and 19th centuries. Her writing is fun and interesting enough, but there's no ground-breaking thesis here, no earth-shattering revelation. Of note are the many ways that American and European scientists tried to use electricity to heal diseases. A quick read.