Bibliographical history of electricity & magnetism, chronologically arranged
History
Bibliographical history of electricity & magnetism, chronologically arranged
Electricity -- History; Electricity -- History -- Bibliography; Magnetism -- History; Magnetism -- History -- Bibliography; Science, Medieval
Priestley says (“Discovery of Germans,” Part I. period vii.) that
Gordon “increased the electric sparks to such a degree that they were
felt from a man’s head to his foot, so that a person could hardly
take them without falling down with giddiness; and small birds were
killed by them. This he effected by conveying electricity, with iron
wires, to the distance of 200 ells (about 250 yards) from the place of
excitation.”
REFERENCES.--_Dantzig Memoirs_, Vol. II. pp. 358, 359, and
Nollet, “Recherches,” etc., p. 172. See also Gordon’s “Phenomena
Electricitatis Exposita,” Erford, 1744 and 1746; “Philosophia,”
1745; “Tentamen ... Electricitatis,” 1745; “Versuche ... einer
Electricität.,” 1745–1746.
=A.D. 1743.=--Hausen (Christian Augustus), Professor of Mathematics at
Leipzig, publishes his “Novi profectus in historia electricitatis,” and
is the first to revive the use of the glass globe introduced by Newton
(A.D. 1675) and employed with great effect by Hauksbee (A.D. 1705).
In Watson’s “Expériences et observations sur l’électricité,” is shown
an electrical machine constructed by Hausen and differing but slightly
from the one alluded to herein at A.D. 1705 as made for M.
Wolfius. In this illustration a lady is pressing her hand against the
glass globe, which is being rotated rapidly, thus developing upon its
surface the vitreous electricity, while the resinous electricity passes
through her body to the earth. The young man who is suspended and
insulated by silken cords, represents the prime conductor introduced
by Prof. Boze (A.D. 1738). The vitreous electricity passes
from the surface of the glass globe, through his feet and entire body,
and is communicated by his hand to the young girl, who stands upon a
large section of resin, and is able to attract small parcels of gold
leaf by means of the electric fluid. Another machine, taken from the
same French work (originally published at Paris in 1748), is said to
have been at that time much in use throughout Holland and principally
at Amsterdam. The man rotates a glass globe, against which the operator
presses his hand, and the electricity is conveyed through the metallic
rod supported by silk-covered stands and held by a third party, who is
igniting spirits in the manner indicated at the A.D. 1744 date.
REFERENCE.--_Dantzig Memoirs_, Vol. I. pp. 278, 279.
=A.D. 1743.=--Boerhaave--Boerhaaven--(Hermann), illustrious
physician, mathematician and natural philosopher (1668–1738), who
held the chairs of theoretical medicine, practical medicine, botany
and chemistry at the University of Leyden, F.R.S. and member French
Academy of Sciences, writes an Essay on the virtue of Magnetical Cures,
of which there were subsequently many editions and translations in
different languages.
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