1 00:00:03,080 --> 00:00:05,840 Speaker 1: Welcome to stuff to blow your mind. From how stup 2 00:00:05,920 --> 00:00:16,760 Speaker 1: works to Carlos. Now, therefore you are hereby order, commanded 3 00:00:16,760 --> 00:00:20,040 Speaker 1: and required to execute the said sentence upon him, the 4 00:00:20,200 --> 00:00:25,160 Speaker 1: said William Kimmler, otherwise called John hort Upon, some day 5 00:00:25,239 --> 00:00:28,160 Speaker 1: within the week commencing on Monday, the twenty four day 6 00:00:28,160 --> 00:00:31,400 Speaker 1: of June, in the year of our Lord one thousand, 7 00:00:31,480 --> 00:00:34,720 Speaker 1: eight hundred and eighty nine, and within the walls of 8 00:00:34,760 --> 00:00:38,760 Speaker 1: Auburn State Prison, or within the yard or enclosure adjoining 9 00:00:38,800 --> 00:00:42,680 Speaker 1: there too by then, and they're causing to pass through 10 00:00:42,800 --> 00:00:46,800 Speaker 1: the body of him, the said William Kimdler otherwise called 11 00:00:46,880 --> 00:00:50,879 Speaker 1: John hort a current of electricity of sufficient intensity to 12 00:00:50,960 --> 00:00:54,600 Speaker 1: cause death, and that the application of such current of 13 00:00:54,640 --> 00:00:59,800 Speaker 1: electricity be continued until he, the said William Kimmler, otherwise 14 00:01:00,320 --> 00:01:06,039 Speaker 1: John Horte, be dead. Gentlemen, I wish you all good luck. 15 00:01:06,560 --> 00:01:08,720 Speaker 1: I believe I'm going to a good place, and I'm 16 00:01:08,720 --> 00:01:11,480 Speaker 1: ready to go. I only want to say that a 17 00:01:11,520 --> 00:01:13,880 Speaker 1: great deal has been said about me that is untrue. 18 00:01:14,400 --> 00:01:23,039 Speaker 1: I'm bad enough, it is cruel to make me out worse. Hey, 19 00:01:23,160 --> 00:01:24,800 Speaker 1: welcome to stuff to blow your mind. My name is 20 00:01:24,880 --> 00:01:27,399 Speaker 1: Robert Lamb, and I'm Joe McCormick, and those were a 21 00:01:27,400 --> 00:01:30,880 Speaker 1: couple of quotes concerning the death of one William Kemmler, 22 00:01:30,959 --> 00:01:34,399 Speaker 1: the first person in the world ever to be legally 23 00:01:34,600 --> 00:01:39,840 Speaker 1: executed by electric chair. That's right, this was nine And 24 00:01:39,880 --> 00:01:43,000 Speaker 1: as we'll roll out in these episodes this week on electricity, 25 00:01:43,000 --> 00:01:46,120 Speaker 1: on the sort of the weird history of electricity. Uh. 26 00:01:46,400 --> 00:01:50,200 Speaker 1: This this episode, this electric execution kind of serves as 27 00:01:50,240 --> 00:01:55,360 Speaker 1: like the the final thrashing moment, uh for the mysticism 28 00:01:55,440 --> 00:01:59,760 Speaker 1: of electricity, the sort of supernatural zeal that surrounded it 29 00:01:59,760 --> 00:02:02,360 Speaker 1: for so long. I remember when I was growing up 30 00:02:02,360 --> 00:02:05,280 Speaker 1: and I learned that the Constitution of the United States 31 00:02:05,640 --> 00:02:10,880 Speaker 1: prohibited cruel and unusual punishment of criminals, and then I 32 00:02:10,919 --> 00:02:15,160 Speaker 1: tried to reconcile that with the fact that people were 33 00:02:15,240 --> 00:02:20,000 Speaker 1: executed by electric chair. It was just hard to think 34 00:02:20,040 --> 00:02:23,919 Speaker 1: of a stranger way to kill somebody on purpose. Yeah, 35 00:02:24,000 --> 00:02:26,800 Speaker 1: and I think that will I think that will become 36 00:02:26,800 --> 00:02:29,240 Speaker 1: clear to everyone, especially the second episode when we get 37 00:02:29,280 --> 00:02:32,280 Speaker 1: into the details of this, about how how this came 38 00:02:32,320 --> 00:02:34,480 Speaker 1: to be on the table, how the argument was made 39 00:02:34,680 --> 00:02:37,960 Speaker 1: that we should electrocute a prisoner, why it was a 40 00:02:37,960 --> 00:02:40,480 Speaker 1: good idea, and why it was the most modern and 41 00:02:40,600 --> 00:02:43,360 Speaker 1: humane and hygienic thing to do. Yeah. So this is 42 00:02:43,360 --> 00:02:45,080 Speaker 1: going to be the first part of a two part 43 00:02:45,160 --> 00:02:48,679 Speaker 1: series on the weird history of electricity, as we've said, 44 00:02:48,720 --> 00:02:51,360 Speaker 1: and we want to focus on a different side of 45 00:02:51,400 --> 00:02:54,200 Speaker 1: the story of electricity than you probably learned about in school. 46 00:02:54,400 --> 00:02:57,800 Speaker 1: So you've probably learned about things like, uh, Benjamin frank 47 00:02:57,960 --> 00:03:01,080 Speaker 1: some of Benjamin Franklin's experiments and uh and how the 48 00:03:01,120 --> 00:03:05,920 Speaker 1: battery was invented and the voltaic pile and eventually Thomas 49 00:03:06,040 --> 00:03:09,120 Speaker 1: Edison and uh and maybe if your teacher was pretty 50 00:03:09,160 --> 00:03:12,359 Speaker 1: cool Nicola Tesla and the you know, the current wars 51 00:03:12,520 --> 00:03:14,800 Speaker 1: and and stuff like that. But what we want to 52 00:03:14,800 --> 00:03:17,520 Speaker 1: look at a different side of how electricity came to 53 00:03:17,600 --> 00:03:21,280 Speaker 1: be a fixture of of our society today, and not 54 00:03:21,360 --> 00:03:25,359 Speaker 1: just the technological journey, but the spiritual journey exactly now 55 00:03:25,440 --> 00:03:27,360 Speaker 1: and now, if you want more on that technical journey, 56 00:03:27,880 --> 00:03:29,799 Speaker 1: do go to how stuff works dot com and check 57 00:03:29,800 --> 00:03:33,160 Speaker 1: out the article how electricity works. That's by Marshall Brain, 58 00:03:33,400 --> 00:03:36,800 Speaker 1: William Harris, and uh and me to a very limited extent. 59 00:03:36,880 --> 00:03:38,520 Speaker 1: I think I touched up that article at one point, 60 00:03:38,560 --> 00:03:41,160 Speaker 1: but mostly it's it's Brain and Harrass that could be 61 00:03:41,200 --> 00:03:43,560 Speaker 1: a thank for that article, But do you have to 62 00:03:43,600 --> 00:03:46,360 Speaker 1: add updates all the new things we've covered about electricity 63 00:03:46,360 --> 00:03:48,640 Speaker 1: in the past period. Basically did punch up on it 64 00:03:48,680 --> 00:03:50,760 Speaker 1: in the same way that you know, a comedian might 65 00:03:50,800 --> 00:03:52,960 Speaker 1: punch up a script. I like went in there and 66 00:03:53,120 --> 00:03:55,320 Speaker 1: uh made it a little more fun at the beginning, 67 00:03:55,480 --> 00:03:59,040 Speaker 1: and updated the references, but otherwise left all the technical 68 00:03:59,120 --> 00:04:04,280 Speaker 1: information as is. But but yeah, this is about sort 69 00:04:04,280 --> 00:04:08,520 Speaker 1: of this is the spiritual journey of electricity, the cultural 70 00:04:08,600 --> 00:04:12,200 Speaker 1: journey of electricity from from the realm of the magical 71 00:04:12,200 --> 00:04:14,680 Speaker 1: to the realm of the munday. And as I was 72 00:04:14,720 --> 00:04:17,960 Speaker 1: thinking about these episodes actually this morning in the shower 73 00:04:18,040 --> 00:04:20,359 Speaker 1: and on the drive into work, I kept thinking of 74 00:04:20,440 --> 00:04:24,560 Speaker 1: it in terms of the transformer. Okay, like like you see, 75 00:04:25,040 --> 00:04:29,440 Speaker 1: you know, on with high tension wires. So the times 76 00:04:29,520 --> 00:04:31,719 Speaker 1: experiments and thoughts that we're going to present in this 77 00:04:31,760 --> 00:04:34,840 Speaker 1: pair of podcast that they serve as a sort of transformer. 78 00:04:34,960 --> 00:04:39,159 Speaker 1: So a transformer decreases the voltage of alternating current, turning 79 00:04:39,160 --> 00:04:42,840 Speaker 1: a dangerous high voltage current that's capable of traveling long 80 00:04:42,880 --> 00:04:47,320 Speaker 1: distances into a lower voltage current that's appropriate for just 81 00:04:47,520 --> 00:04:51,200 Speaker 1: mundane use in your home. So these events that we're 82 00:04:51,200 --> 00:04:53,560 Speaker 1: going to discuss are are the inner workings of the 83 00:04:53,600 --> 00:04:59,000 Speaker 1: cultural transformer that transformed electricity from a magical, holy, spiritual, 84 00:04:59,120 --> 00:05:02,920 Speaker 1: otherworldly inner g into something that you can just completely 85 00:05:03,040 --> 00:05:05,640 Speaker 1: take for granted every day of your life. Okay, well, 86 00:05:05,720 --> 00:05:08,560 Speaker 1: let's let's go back in time from the execution of 87 00:05:08,560 --> 00:05:11,880 Speaker 1: William Kimmler and go all the way back to the 88 00:05:11,960 --> 00:05:16,080 Speaker 1: earliest things we know about electricity, because before humans began 89 00:05:16,080 --> 00:05:19,680 Speaker 1: to recognize and test electromagnetism as a force of physics, 90 00:05:19,960 --> 00:05:23,719 Speaker 1: we were aware of it in several natural settings. For example, 91 00:05:23,800 --> 00:05:28,080 Speaker 1: lightning that's pretty obvious, the shocks of electric fishes, and 92 00:05:28,279 --> 00:05:32,760 Speaker 1: objects that naturally pulled toward one another through some invisible attraction. 93 00:05:32,880 --> 00:05:35,760 Speaker 1: So you might have a loadstone, or you know the 94 00:05:35,839 --> 00:05:38,760 Speaker 1: name for magnetite, or or you might find that friction, 95 00:05:38,839 --> 00:05:41,640 Speaker 1: you know, we're just rubbing one object against another could 96 00:05:41,640 --> 00:05:45,679 Speaker 1: cause attraction. And before we had even the slightest idea 97 00:05:45,839 --> 00:05:50,440 Speaker 1: what electricity was, its power found a way into our metaphors. 98 00:05:50,520 --> 00:05:55,600 Speaker 1: We naturally recognized that there was something very mysterious and 99 00:05:55,800 --> 00:05:59,480 Speaker 1: important going on in these invisible forces. So, for example, 100 00:06:00,000 --> 00:06:04,239 Speaker 1: and Plato's Mano dialogue, you know, you remember this one mayno. 101 00:06:04,680 --> 00:06:08,680 Speaker 1: He compares socrates style of argument to a torpedo ray, 102 00:06:08,920 --> 00:06:11,520 Speaker 1: which it's a type of electric fish. It's a genus 103 00:06:11,560 --> 00:06:15,320 Speaker 1: of a ray that stuns prey and enemies with jolts 104 00:06:15,360 --> 00:06:18,440 Speaker 1: of electric charge issued through the water. And the point 105 00:06:18,480 --> 00:06:22,960 Speaker 1: of the comparison is that Socrates stuns his interlocutors into 106 00:06:23,000 --> 00:06:27,920 Speaker 1: a state of just utter perplexity by illuminating the aporia, 107 00:06:28,000 --> 00:06:32,440 Speaker 1: the realization of an internal contradiction in one's worldview. Okay, 108 00:06:32,560 --> 00:06:35,200 Speaker 1: in other words, that he's dropping truth bombs exactly, He's 109 00:06:35,240 --> 00:06:37,640 Speaker 1: stunning you with his truth bombs. That that's a very 110 00:06:37,720 --> 00:06:40,760 Speaker 1: similar metaphor, I'd say, except they wouldn't say truth bombs 111 00:06:40,760 --> 00:06:43,680 Speaker 1: because they didn't have bombs, but they did have electric fish. 112 00:06:43,839 --> 00:06:48,799 Speaker 1: So so he's dropping truth torpedo fish. And just in aside, 113 00:06:48,800 --> 00:06:51,960 Speaker 1: there are there are numerous electric fish out there. Uh. 114 00:06:52,080 --> 00:06:55,839 Speaker 1: The the electric eel, which is more of an electric catfish, 115 00:06:55,880 --> 00:06:57,599 Speaker 1: tends to get most of the press because it is 116 00:06:57,640 --> 00:07:01,400 Speaker 1: the most electric fish. But there are varying levels of 117 00:07:01,440 --> 00:07:03,600 Speaker 1: electric fish out there, ranging from those that stunned their 118 00:07:03,600 --> 00:07:05,560 Speaker 1: prey to those that use it as more of a 119 00:07:05,560 --> 00:07:09,679 Speaker 1: communication senstory scenario. Yeah, and then there's a the lease 120 00:07:09,760 --> 00:07:12,600 Speaker 1: of my leads. So this is a Greek philosopher known 121 00:07:12,600 --> 00:07:15,880 Speaker 1: as one of the legendary Seven Wise Men, and he 122 00:07:15,920 --> 00:07:18,880 Speaker 1: may have been the first human to really study electricity, 123 00:07:18,960 --> 00:07:22,920 Speaker 1: and this would have been around a six hundred BC. Now, 124 00:07:22,960 --> 00:07:25,760 Speaker 1: he was the one who was doing friction experiments. He 125 00:07:25,800 --> 00:07:29,240 Speaker 1: would take amber, so you know, fossilized tree resin host 126 00:07:29,240 --> 00:07:31,640 Speaker 1: the stuff from Jurassic Park. Yeah, well, hopefully there's an 127 00:07:31,680 --> 00:07:34,600 Speaker 1: insect in there, something that kind of you know, crippled 128 00:07:34,640 --> 00:07:37,400 Speaker 1: and and frozen in time. But he didn't come up 129 00:07:37,400 --> 00:07:39,320 Speaker 1: with the idea to get its DNA out. No, he 130 00:07:39,440 --> 00:07:41,800 Speaker 1: wasn't quite up to that level unless you want to 131 00:07:41,880 --> 00:07:44,480 Speaker 1: view the resulting spark here is like the soul of 132 00:07:44,560 --> 00:07:48,040 Speaker 1: the bug leaving the amber. So he'd rubbed the amber 133 00:07:48,080 --> 00:07:50,960 Speaker 1: with fur, and he was able to attract dust, feathers, 134 00:07:50,960 --> 00:07:54,040 Speaker 1: and other lightweight objects. And so these were the first 135 00:07:54,080 --> 00:07:58,760 Speaker 1: experiments with electrostatics, the study of of stationary electric charges 136 00:07:59,440 --> 00:08:03,120 Speaker 1: or electricity. In fact, the word electricity comes from the 137 00:08:03,120 --> 00:08:07,640 Speaker 1: Greek electron, which means amber. Yeah, and what else the 138 00:08:07,680 --> 00:08:12,080 Speaker 1: ancients knew about electricity, It's it's hard to know. There. 139 00:08:12,120 --> 00:08:16,040 Speaker 1: There is, of course, the quite famous Baghdad battery, which 140 00:08:16,080 --> 00:08:19,760 Speaker 1: I think most archaeologists now think was not actually a battery. 141 00:08:19,800 --> 00:08:21,679 Speaker 1: But the idea there was that there was a clay 142 00:08:21,760 --> 00:08:25,120 Speaker 1: jar and then found near it were some metal elements that, 143 00:08:25,160 --> 00:08:28,880 Speaker 1: if arranged in the right way, perhaps could have accumulated 144 00:08:28,920 --> 00:08:32,920 Speaker 1: electric charge. I've read that archaeologist now just almost all 145 00:08:32,960 --> 00:08:35,640 Speaker 1: agree that it was just a normal, ordinary storage jar. 146 00:08:35,720 --> 00:08:38,120 Speaker 1: It was not actually a battery. But one could hope, 147 00:08:38,160 --> 00:08:40,360 Speaker 1: you know, you always, you always kind of think, wouldn't 148 00:08:40,400 --> 00:08:42,679 Speaker 1: it be cool if there was some ancient person who 149 00:08:42,960 --> 00:08:45,680 Speaker 1: who had knowledge way ahead of their time, and and 150 00:08:45,720 --> 00:08:47,920 Speaker 1: it was just lost to history because I don't know, 151 00:08:48,000 --> 00:08:50,680 Speaker 1: they didn't write it down or nobody would believe them. 152 00:08:51,320 --> 00:08:54,679 Speaker 1: But people recognized there was a force at work. There 153 00:08:54,760 --> 00:09:00,520 Speaker 1: was electromagnetic attraction, there was static discharge, shocks, sparks, arcs, 154 00:09:00,600 --> 00:09:04,840 Speaker 1: But what was it? People commonly spoke about it using 155 00:09:04,880 --> 00:09:08,599 Speaker 1: sort of familiar but vague or incorrect points of comparison, 156 00:09:08,679 --> 00:09:11,520 Speaker 1: Like Benjamin Franklin in his letters and notes in the 157 00:09:11,559 --> 00:09:15,480 Speaker 1: mid seventeen hundreds, spoke of the electrical fire. This was 158 00:09:15,520 --> 00:09:17,960 Speaker 1: a common point of comparison. People would speak of the 159 00:09:18,200 --> 00:09:22,840 Speaker 1: fire that that carries the electrical fluid or in Even 160 00:09:22,880 --> 00:09:26,439 Speaker 1: in eighteen eighty nine. Much later, Thomas Edison, who worked 161 00:09:26,440 --> 00:09:30,360 Speaker 1: with electricity in a technological sense, he could command electricity 162 00:09:30,400 --> 00:09:33,160 Speaker 1: to do his bidding, yet when asked what it was, 163 00:09:33,240 --> 00:09:36,880 Speaker 1: he vaguely explained that electricity was a mode of motion, 164 00:09:37,040 --> 00:09:39,600 Speaker 1: a system of vibrations. Yeah. I love this quote because 165 00:09:39,679 --> 00:09:41,920 Speaker 1: apparently edisonally just out there pressing the flash. It was 166 00:09:41,960 --> 00:09:44,600 Speaker 1: like a formal engagement. I think he was having lunch 167 00:09:44,679 --> 00:09:49,560 Speaker 1: at somebody at the Eiffel Tower, and then somebody asked him, So, Edison, 168 00:09:49,600 --> 00:09:51,600 Speaker 1: the electricity is your thing, tell me what is it? 169 00:09:52,640 --> 00:09:55,400 Speaker 1: This is all he could really come up with. Yeah. 170 00:09:55,440 --> 00:09:58,760 Speaker 1: And so even after people were performing experiments with electricity, 171 00:09:58,840 --> 00:10:02,600 Speaker 1: even creating some electrical technologies that they were using for 172 00:10:02,600 --> 00:10:05,880 Speaker 1: for purposes in uh in say, medicine, whether or not 173 00:10:05,920 --> 00:10:09,720 Speaker 1: those purposes were quite on the money in terms of 174 00:10:09,760 --> 00:10:13,480 Speaker 1: improving people's health. People were using electricity, but they they 175 00:10:13,480 --> 00:10:16,160 Speaker 1: didn't know what it was. Even in seventeen sixty seven, 176 00:10:16,280 --> 00:10:20,679 Speaker 1: after a lot of these famous experiments like Benjamin Franklin's experiments, 177 00:10:20,960 --> 00:10:25,440 Speaker 1: Joseph priestly described electricity as the youngest daughter of the sciences, 178 00:10:25,880 --> 00:10:27,920 Speaker 1: which I think is kind of a sweet thing to say. 179 00:10:27,960 --> 00:10:32,800 Speaker 1: But what was the invisible fire? The electrical fire? It 180 00:10:32,840 --> 00:10:35,839 Speaker 1: seemed it was a natural force of the world people understood, 181 00:10:35,960 --> 00:10:39,200 Speaker 1: and yet it commanded a sense of mystery because it 182 00:10:39,240 --> 00:10:43,079 Speaker 1: was invisible most of the time. It could act at 183 00:10:43,080 --> 00:10:45,800 Speaker 1: a distance like a ghostly force almost, you know. The 184 00:10:45,840 --> 00:10:48,960 Speaker 1: attraction between objects could be like a ghost reaching out 185 00:10:49,000 --> 00:10:51,920 Speaker 1: through the ether to pull things toward one another. It 186 00:10:51,960 --> 00:10:55,320 Speaker 1: could spark in the dark, and these were strange and 187 00:10:55,400 --> 00:10:58,160 Speaker 1: mysterious phenomena. Even when people began to be able to 188 00:10:58,200 --> 00:11:00,719 Speaker 1: control it, they didn't know what it was. Is So 189 00:11:00,800 --> 00:11:04,440 Speaker 1: the modern era of electrical research, I think, is often 190 00:11:04,600 --> 00:11:07,679 Speaker 1: traced back to the add to the creation of the 191 00:11:07,800 --> 00:11:11,120 Speaker 1: Leyden jar. Right, So, the Leyden jar was a thing 192 00:11:11,200 --> 00:11:14,599 Speaker 1: that was invented in the seventeen forties, usually cited a 193 00:11:14,640 --> 00:11:18,080 Speaker 1: seventeen forty five or forty six, discovered independently by different 194 00:11:18,120 --> 00:11:20,920 Speaker 1: people at different times. But the laden jar was what 195 00:11:21,000 --> 00:11:23,280 Speaker 1: was then known as a condenser. But it's what we 196 00:11:23,400 --> 00:11:26,680 Speaker 1: now call a capacitor. So in simple terms, this is 197 00:11:26,679 --> 00:11:30,600 Speaker 1: a device capable of storing and quickly discharging a large 198 00:11:30,600 --> 00:11:34,600 Speaker 1: amount of electricity. Yeah, I've read the laden jar, particularly 199 00:11:34,640 --> 00:11:38,040 Speaker 1: the one that was created by a Dutch instrument instrument 200 00:11:38,080 --> 00:11:43,280 Speaker 1: makers Edwald von Kleist and pet von muschen Bruck. This 201 00:11:43,440 --> 00:11:46,480 Speaker 1: was basically a glass jar full of water and had 202 00:11:46,520 --> 00:11:49,240 Speaker 1: a nail in it. And this was this was able 203 00:11:49,280 --> 00:11:50,920 Speaker 1: to They were able to use this to store an 204 00:11:50,920 --> 00:11:54,160 Speaker 1: electrical charge. Yeah. They had the different metals on the 205 00:11:54,160 --> 00:11:57,600 Speaker 1: inside and outside, and the differential between them could allow 206 00:11:57,640 --> 00:12:01,080 Speaker 1: electric charge to accumulate and then you could charge it. Yeah, 207 00:12:01,120 --> 00:12:04,760 Speaker 1: and and pretty massively like apparently the first time mussen 208 00:12:04,800 --> 00:12:08,000 Speaker 1: Brock used the jar, he basically shocked the hell out 209 00:12:08,040 --> 00:12:11,079 Speaker 1: of himself. I mean didn't die, but tremendous amount of 210 00:12:11,080 --> 00:12:14,640 Speaker 1: shock coming out of this jar of water and nail. Well, 211 00:12:14,679 --> 00:12:17,640 Speaker 1: but once you look at what this kind of jar 212 00:12:17,760 --> 00:12:20,760 Speaker 1: is capable of delivering a shock like that, obviously some 213 00:12:20,840 --> 00:12:24,920 Speaker 1: applications could come to mind, and they sure did come 214 00:12:24,960 --> 00:12:28,559 Speaker 1: to some minds, especially the mind of one Benjamin Franklin. 215 00:12:28,679 --> 00:12:31,760 Speaker 1: So you might know about some of Benjamin Franklin's experiments 216 00:12:31,760 --> 00:12:34,880 Speaker 1: with electricity. Probably the most famous story is one we 217 00:12:34,960 --> 00:12:37,679 Speaker 1: only have second hand, actually, and that's the story about 218 00:12:37,679 --> 00:12:40,440 Speaker 1: Franklin flying a kite tied to a key in a 219 00:12:40,520 --> 00:12:44,600 Speaker 1: thunderstorm to demonstrate the electrical nature of lightning. And we 220 00:12:44,679 --> 00:12:47,080 Speaker 1: only have been in me that Disney cartoon did really 221 00:12:47,080 --> 00:12:48,800 Speaker 1: go by. I don't know what that is. That's how 222 00:12:48,880 --> 00:12:52,720 Speaker 1: they did a whole cartoon about Benjamin Franklin and the kaite. 223 00:12:52,720 --> 00:12:56,079 Speaker 1: But there's this mouth that's really the brilliance behind then, 224 00:12:56,200 --> 00:12:59,480 Speaker 1: and and he's constantly urging ben on. I mean, just 225 00:13:00,559 --> 00:13:03,880 Speaker 1: the been Franklin activities that are acceptable for children to watch, 226 00:13:03,960 --> 00:13:07,240 Speaker 1: you know. I think this story was propaganda invented by 227 00:13:07,280 --> 00:13:11,560 Speaker 1: the kite maker's lobby. No, but seriously, so, we don't 228 00:13:11,559 --> 00:13:14,559 Speaker 1: know if this story actually happened or not. It probably did. 229 00:13:14,720 --> 00:13:17,760 Speaker 1: We get the story from Franklin's friend Joseph Priestley, who 230 00:13:18,120 --> 00:13:21,760 Speaker 1: reported it later, so not from Franklin himself. But Franklin 231 00:13:21,840 --> 00:13:25,280 Speaker 1: certainly did do lots of experiments on electricity. He invented 232 00:13:25,320 --> 00:13:28,600 Speaker 1: the lightning rod, which is a rod mounted on top 233 00:13:28,640 --> 00:13:31,200 Speaker 1: of a building that's connected to a wire leading down 234 00:13:31,200 --> 00:13:33,400 Speaker 1: to a ground rod embedded in the earth. And what 235 00:13:33,440 --> 00:13:36,400 Speaker 1: this does is it gives the lightning a an avenue 236 00:13:36,440 --> 00:13:39,120 Speaker 1: of travel from the top of the building to the ground, 237 00:13:39,440 --> 00:13:42,079 Speaker 1: sort of a harmless path, rather than it going through 238 00:13:42,080 --> 00:13:46,600 Speaker 1: the building, starting fires, potentially damaging people or structural elements. Yeah, 239 00:13:46,640 --> 00:13:50,120 Speaker 1: it's like the expressway going around a major population center 240 00:13:50,200 --> 00:13:52,320 Speaker 1: so that the traffic doesn't have to go directly through 241 00:13:52,400 --> 00:13:54,679 Speaker 1: town where it can cause all sorts of havoc. Yeah. 242 00:13:54,760 --> 00:13:56,920 Speaker 1: So you've probably heard about these things, but you might 243 00:13:57,040 --> 00:14:01,200 Speaker 1: not have heard about Franklin's ex periments in the electric 244 00:14:01,240 --> 00:14:05,360 Speaker 1: slaughter of large fowl, a specifically the turkey, which I 245 00:14:05,679 --> 00:14:08,600 Speaker 1: do want to just throw in really quickly that Franklin 246 00:14:08,840 --> 00:14:11,480 Speaker 1: famously said that that he thought the turkey should be 247 00:14:11,520 --> 00:14:15,360 Speaker 1: the national bird. Yeah, a lot of thanks he gives it. 248 00:14:15,440 --> 00:14:19,320 Speaker 1: He's like, national bird, you will die. Yeah, why I 249 00:14:19,360 --> 00:14:21,560 Speaker 1: would think he would maybe go out and get shocked 250 00:14:21,560 --> 00:14:23,880 Speaker 1: the eagle since he saw the eagle is this kind 251 00:14:23,880 --> 00:14:28,320 Speaker 1: of horrible, moral, morally offensive bird as opposed to that 252 00:14:28,400 --> 00:14:33,360 Speaker 1: the noble slightly vain and preposterous, but the courageous turkey. Yeah, 253 00:14:33,400 --> 00:14:35,400 Speaker 1: well he what he did see the eagle as a 254 00:14:35,440 --> 00:14:38,280 Speaker 1: thief and a scavenger, right yeah. Yeah, he's like, that's 255 00:14:38,360 --> 00:14:40,560 Speaker 1: that's really not our in our spirit, it should be 256 00:14:40,600 --> 00:14:43,680 Speaker 1: the turkey. Well, I guess there's no law that says 257 00:14:43,760 --> 00:14:46,640 Speaker 1: don't kill what you believe is noble. Because he believed 258 00:14:46,640 --> 00:14:49,040 Speaker 1: the turkey to be noable, but he also wanted to 259 00:14:49,360 --> 00:14:53,920 Speaker 1: roast it with electrical current and eat its flesh. Well, 260 00:14:54,600 --> 00:14:57,720 Speaker 1: I guess it's easier to obtain a turkey than an eagle. 261 00:14:58,400 --> 00:15:03,280 Speaker 1: That's true. The eagles fight back. Yeah. So on April nine, 262 00:15:03,360 --> 00:15:07,120 Speaker 1: Franklin wrote to the scientist Peter Collinson a letter detailing 263 00:15:07,200 --> 00:15:10,200 Speaker 1: the results of some recent experiments he'd done in electricity. 264 00:15:10,240 --> 00:15:14,920 Speaker 1: And he ended with a strange proposal for a quote 265 00:15:15,080 --> 00:15:19,480 Speaker 1: party of pleasure on the banks of the Schookole the river. 266 00:15:19,600 --> 00:15:22,480 Speaker 1: And so this is what he said. Quote a turkey 267 00:15:22,600 --> 00:15:25,000 Speaker 1: is to be killed for our dinners by the electric 268 00:15:25,040 --> 00:15:28,800 Speaker 1: shock and roasted by the electric jack before a fire 269 00:15:28,960 --> 00:15:32,160 Speaker 1: kindled by the electric bottle, when the healths of all 270 00:15:32,200 --> 00:15:35,480 Speaker 1: the famous electricians in England, France and Germany are to 271 00:15:35,520 --> 00:15:39,480 Speaker 1: be drank in electrified bumpers under the discharge of guns 272 00:15:39,520 --> 00:15:42,360 Speaker 1: from the electric battery. Okay, first of all, what's an 273 00:15:42,360 --> 00:15:45,560 Speaker 1: electric bumper? This is great? So Franklin explains this in 274 00:15:45,600 --> 00:15:49,720 Speaker 1: a marginal note. He says, an electrified bumper is a small, 275 00:15:49,840 --> 00:15:55,400 Speaker 1: thin glass tumbler near filled with wine and electrified. This, 276 00:15:55,600 --> 00:15:57,760 Speaker 1: when brought to the lips, gives a shock if the 277 00:15:57,800 --> 00:16:01,280 Speaker 1: party be close shaved and does not breathe on the liquor. 278 00:16:01,520 --> 00:16:04,680 Speaker 1: How is that not factoring into modern exology that you 279 00:16:04,720 --> 00:16:06,560 Speaker 1: think that would? I can see that going over huge 280 00:16:06,560 --> 00:16:09,720 Speaker 1: at trendy bars, right, especially glass. Yeah, well, it seems 281 00:16:09,720 --> 00:16:11,440 Speaker 1: like it would really go with the you know those 282 00:16:11,480 --> 00:16:13,840 Speaker 1: trends in the nineteen I guess was at the fifties, 283 00:16:13,960 --> 00:16:18,760 Speaker 1: or they'd have electric movie seats that would shock you harm. Yeah, 284 00:16:18,800 --> 00:16:20,680 Speaker 1: so they should have served drinks that would shock you 285 00:16:20,720 --> 00:16:25,400 Speaker 1: as well. So anyway, Franklin's attempt to slaughter turkeys with 286 00:16:25,440 --> 00:16:28,160 Speaker 1: the electric discharge of Leyden jars, which is what he 287 00:16:28,240 --> 00:16:31,320 Speaker 1: was using. The Leyden jars we talked about earlier. Those 288 00:16:31,320 --> 00:16:34,760 Speaker 1: were his electric bottles. This happened in seventeen fifty, and 289 00:16:34,840 --> 00:16:37,800 Speaker 1: it did not go so well. According to a letter 290 00:16:37,880 --> 00:16:42,240 Speaker 1: from one William Watson to the Royal Society in London, quote, 291 00:16:42,760 --> 00:16:45,480 Speaker 1: he first made several attempts on fouls and found that 292 00:16:45,560 --> 00:16:49,840 Speaker 1: two large thin glass jars guilt holding each about six gallons, 293 00:16:49,880 --> 00:16:52,120 Speaker 1: and such as I mentioned I had employed in the 294 00:16:52,200 --> 00:16:55,200 Speaker 1: last paper I laid before you upon this subject, were 295 00:16:55,240 --> 00:16:58,760 Speaker 1: sufficient win fully charged to kill common hens out right. 296 00:16:59,080 --> 00:17:02,600 Speaker 1: But the turkey is though thrown into violent convulsions and 297 00:17:02,640 --> 00:17:05,840 Speaker 1: then lying as dead for some minutes, would recover in 298 00:17:05,920 --> 00:17:07,959 Speaker 1: less than a quarter of an hour. So they had 299 00:17:07,960 --> 00:17:10,720 Speaker 1: turkeys coming back from the dead. I mean, that's pretty 300 00:17:10,760 --> 00:17:16,639 Speaker 1: messed up. Watson continues, however, having added three other such 301 00:17:16,720 --> 00:17:19,720 Speaker 1: to the former too, and he's talking with the laden 302 00:17:19,800 --> 00:17:23,080 Speaker 1: jars there. Uh, though not fully charged. He killed a 303 00:17:23,080 --> 00:17:26,200 Speaker 1: turkey of about ten pounds weight and believes they would 304 00:17:26,200 --> 00:17:29,960 Speaker 1: have killed a much larger He conceded as himself says 305 00:17:30,200 --> 00:17:33,480 Speaker 1: that the birds killed in this manner eat uncommonly tender. 306 00:17:34,160 --> 00:17:36,840 Speaker 1: You know, that's that's one heck of a yell review. 307 00:17:37,320 --> 00:17:40,919 Speaker 1: But but but I do appreciate the spirit of the 308 00:17:40,960 --> 00:17:43,280 Speaker 1: thing that the spirit of the dinner was. We're just 309 00:17:43,280 --> 00:17:46,600 Speaker 1: gonna have a completely electric dinner. Everything from the death 310 00:17:46,600 --> 00:17:48,240 Speaker 1: of the bird, to the cooking of the bird, to 311 00:17:48,359 --> 00:17:51,879 Speaker 1: the the curious way that the drinks make your lips tinkle, 312 00:17:52,200 --> 00:17:56,399 Speaker 1: everything is going to be powered by this this this 313 00:17:56,720 --> 00:18:00,439 Speaker 1: divine energy that we are now harnessing with our modern science. Well, 314 00:18:00,440 --> 00:18:04,240 Speaker 1: it almost sounds like the scientific counterpart to those spirit 315 00:18:04,320 --> 00:18:06,639 Speaker 1: parties people would have where you know, where you'd have 316 00:18:06,680 --> 00:18:08,840 Speaker 1: a seance and you have people doing all kinds of 317 00:18:08,880 --> 00:18:13,000 Speaker 1: spiritualist games and demonstrations. Here it's the other side of 318 00:18:13,000 --> 00:18:16,440 Speaker 1: the coin. But they're using natural phenomena. You know. Then 319 00:18:16,440 --> 00:18:19,720 Speaker 1: again how natural because all these mysteries remained, what is 320 00:18:19,760 --> 00:18:22,720 Speaker 1: the electrical fire? Like? Ultimately they're playing with something that 321 00:18:22,800 --> 00:18:27,159 Speaker 1: they don't completely understand. Um you know, now with that, 322 00:18:27,280 --> 00:18:29,680 Speaker 1: I have to add the caveat that had a lot 323 00:18:29,720 --> 00:18:33,400 Speaker 1: of us today do not really completely understand the electricity 324 00:18:33,400 --> 00:18:36,280 Speaker 1: that we're we're employing, right, We're we're fine to let 325 00:18:36,280 --> 00:18:38,879 Speaker 1: it power our toaster ovens and cook our ego waffles, 326 00:18:38,920 --> 00:18:43,520 Speaker 1: but we don't really We couldn't engineer electrical dynamos ourselves exactly, 327 00:18:43,520 --> 00:18:45,600 Speaker 1: and of course that's just part of modern life. And 328 00:18:45,640 --> 00:18:48,439 Speaker 1: then they should also be stressed as well that we 329 00:18:48,520 --> 00:18:53,400 Speaker 1: haven't completely filled in all the all the blanks, all 330 00:18:53,400 --> 00:18:57,760 Speaker 1: the spaces in our understanding of electricity itself, Um there are, 331 00:18:57,840 --> 00:19:01,320 Speaker 1: which is kind of weird to imagine. Yeah, but back 332 00:19:01,320 --> 00:19:03,720 Speaker 1: to the dinner party, how did our host recover from 333 00:19:03,760 --> 00:19:08,040 Speaker 1: this setback of reanimated turkey? Well, yeah, you might think 334 00:19:08,119 --> 00:19:10,240 Speaker 1: that the turkeys coming back from the dead would be 335 00:19:10,359 --> 00:19:13,480 Speaker 1: enough to stun you into silence, but but Franklin was 336 00:19:13,520 --> 00:19:16,240 Speaker 1: in for another shock, because he actually managed to shock 337 00:19:16,359 --> 00:19:21,040 Speaker 1: himself so bad that he was knocked unconscious. Watson writes 338 00:19:21,160 --> 00:19:24,879 Speaker 1: later in this same letter that he says from this experiment, 339 00:19:24,920 --> 00:19:27,800 Speaker 1: maybe seen the danger even under the greatest caution to 340 00:19:27,840 --> 00:19:31,320 Speaker 1: the operator when making these experiments with large jars. For 341 00:19:31,400 --> 00:19:33,600 Speaker 1: it is not to be doubted but that several of 342 00:19:33,640 --> 00:19:37,399 Speaker 1: these fully charged would as certainly by increasing them in 343 00:19:37,440 --> 00:19:40,600 Speaker 1: proportion to the size, kill a man as they before 344 00:19:40,720 --> 00:19:45,080 Speaker 1: did the turkey. Alright, so here we see the two 345 00:19:45,119 --> 00:19:47,520 Speaker 1: sides of the coin. Like. On one hand, electricity can 346 00:19:47,520 --> 00:19:50,440 Speaker 1: be managed, it can be used, uh, it can be 347 00:19:50,520 --> 00:19:54,440 Speaker 1: played with. But it can also prove dangerous uh in 348 00:19:54,720 --> 00:19:59,200 Speaker 1: high enough quantities, certainly, and indeed electricity experiments could prove 349 00:19:59,240 --> 00:20:01,800 Speaker 1: deadly if proper care was not taken. I want to 350 00:20:01,840 --> 00:20:05,040 Speaker 1: look at one example, which is gae Org Wilhelm Rickman. 351 00:20:05,720 --> 00:20:09,400 Speaker 1: So he was a scientist, he was experimenting on electricity. 352 00:20:09,440 --> 00:20:13,080 Speaker 1: He was conducting an experiment involving an insulated lightning rod 353 00:20:13,560 --> 00:20:16,960 Speaker 1: during a storm in St. Petersburg in seventeen fifty three, 354 00:20:17,040 --> 00:20:20,520 Speaker 1: and Rickman got dead. He was struck dead in his 355 00:20:20,640 --> 00:20:23,199 Speaker 1: lab by what has been described as a burst of 356 00:20:23,280 --> 00:20:26,400 Speaker 1: ball lightning I want to read out the account here, 357 00:20:26,400 --> 00:20:29,720 Speaker 1: which is bizarre and fascinating. So this is a letter 358 00:20:29,760 --> 00:20:33,960 Speaker 1: to the Pennsylvania Gazette from March seventeen fifty four explaining 359 00:20:33,960 --> 00:20:37,560 Speaker 1: what happened to Rickman. It says the place for the 360 00:20:37,600 --> 00:20:40,440 Speaker 1: experiment was a kind of gallery, with its entrance toward 361 00:20:40,480 --> 00:20:43,080 Speaker 1: the north and a window towards the south. Whether the 362 00:20:43,119 --> 00:20:45,879 Speaker 1: window was open is not known. All that is certain 363 00:20:46,040 --> 00:20:48,800 Speaker 1: is that near the window was a cupboard four ft long, 364 00:20:48,920 --> 00:20:52,439 Speaker 1: on which replaced the electrical needle, and a vessel of water, 365 00:20:52,840 --> 00:20:56,800 Speaker 1: partly filled with brass filings, over which came an iron 366 00:20:56,840 --> 00:20:59,960 Speaker 1: bar about an inch thick and a foot long fast 367 00:21:00,000 --> 00:21:02,160 Speaker 1: and at the top to a wire which came down 368 00:21:02,200 --> 00:21:04,560 Speaker 1: from the roof of the house through the gallery door. 369 00:21:04,640 --> 00:21:07,760 Speaker 1: So they were sort of playing with death here. They're saying, Okay, 370 00:21:07,800 --> 00:21:09,720 Speaker 1: we've got a lightning rod on the top of the house. 371 00:21:09,960 --> 00:21:12,520 Speaker 1: We've got it running down to an insulated wire in 372 00:21:12,560 --> 00:21:16,680 Speaker 1: the room that suspended over this bowl. And so they continue. 373 00:21:17,359 --> 00:21:20,159 Speaker 1: The professor, judging from the needle that the tempest was 374 00:21:20,200 --> 00:21:23,320 Speaker 1: at a great distance, assured Mr. Soko Law that there 375 00:21:23,359 --> 00:21:25,960 Speaker 1: was no danger, but there might be at the approach. 376 00:21:26,080 --> 00:21:29,200 Speaker 1: So they don't think the storm's hit yet. But Mr 377 00:21:29,280 --> 00:21:32,840 Speaker 1: Rickman stood about a foot from the bar, attentively observing 378 00:21:32,880 --> 00:21:37,159 Speaker 1: the needle. Soon after Mr Socolow saw the machine being untouched, 379 00:21:37,359 --> 00:21:41,000 Speaker 1: a globe of blue and whitish fire about four inches 380 00:21:41,040 --> 00:21:45,080 Speaker 1: in diameter dart from the bar against Mr Rickman's forehead, 381 00:21:45,320 --> 00:21:49,639 Speaker 1: who fell backwards without the least outcry, which is a 382 00:21:49,640 --> 00:21:52,359 Speaker 1: creepy way to die, right. You'd expect a person to scream. 383 00:21:52,880 --> 00:21:56,240 Speaker 1: Instead he just silently falls, right, And this is important 384 00:21:56,280 --> 00:21:59,520 Speaker 1: to keep in mind later, this sort of accidental electronic 385 00:22:00,080 --> 00:22:07,359 Speaker 1: electrical death where death is just instantaneous, seemingly seemingly, which 386 00:22:07,440 --> 00:22:10,440 Speaker 1: is the scariest part based on what we finally found 387 00:22:10,440 --> 00:22:12,840 Speaker 1: out can happen. But also towards the end of the 388 00:22:12,880 --> 00:22:15,879 Speaker 1: same letter, what is the takeaway from this, Well it 389 00:22:16,080 --> 00:22:20,679 Speaker 1: they learned some interesting things. Quote. The new doctrine of 390 00:22:20,760 --> 00:22:24,840 Speaker 1: lightning is, however, confirmed by this unhappy accident, and many 391 00:22:24,960 --> 00:22:27,880 Speaker 1: lives may hereafter be saved by the practice, it teaches. 392 00:22:28,440 --> 00:22:31,840 Speaker 1: Mr Rickman, being about to make experiments in the matter 393 00:22:31,880 --> 00:22:35,400 Speaker 1: of lightning, had supported his rod and wires with electrics 394 00:22:35,520 --> 00:22:38,920 Speaker 1: per se, which cut off their communication with the Earth 395 00:22:39,280 --> 00:22:43,879 Speaker 1: and himself standing too near where the wire terminated. Helped 396 00:22:43,920 --> 00:22:47,520 Speaker 1: with his body to complete that communication. So he formed 397 00:22:47,560 --> 00:22:50,800 Speaker 1: the road. Instead of Franklin's model, where the electric current 398 00:22:50,840 --> 00:22:55,159 Speaker 1: takes the freeway bypass around the city, this went straight 399 00:22:55,200 --> 00:22:58,720 Speaker 1: through the city and through a dude to the other side, 400 00:22:58,920 --> 00:23:02,560 Speaker 1: basically through his living right. Uh alright, So so based 401 00:23:02,600 --> 00:23:05,359 Speaker 1: on that, you might think, well, surely everyone's learning the 402 00:23:05,440 --> 00:23:08,800 Speaker 1: lesson here. Electricty is dangerous. You should not employ it 403 00:23:08,880 --> 00:23:11,479 Speaker 1: at your dinner parties, you should not employ it in 404 00:23:11,600 --> 00:23:15,560 Speaker 1: your parlor. And yet uh, we see the trend go 405 00:23:15,600 --> 00:23:18,199 Speaker 1: in the opposite exactly the opposite way. So that was 406 00:23:18,240 --> 00:23:21,840 Speaker 1: seventeen fifty three that that happened to Rickman. And and 407 00:23:22,000 --> 00:23:25,919 Speaker 1: at the same time, in the salons and galleries of 408 00:23:26,119 --> 00:23:31,040 Speaker 1: Europe and North America, electricity was becoming the hottest bit 409 00:23:31,200 --> 00:23:35,760 Speaker 1: of edutainment, uh, that there had ever been. So I 410 00:23:35,760 --> 00:23:39,439 Speaker 1: want to draw now from mostly from a paper called 411 00:23:39,680 --> 00:23:42,359 Speaker 1: Sparks in the Dark, The Attraction of Electricity in the 412 00:23:42,440 --> 00:23:45,840 Speaker 1: eighteenth Century by Paula Bertucci. And she's been a really 413 00:23:45,880 --> 00:23:48,119 Speaker 1: good source for us in these episodes of Several of 414 00:23:48,160 --> 00:23:51,400 Speaker 1: her papers have been big sources of our researches. She's 415 00:23:51,440 --> 00:23:53,640 Speaker 1: done a lot of work on the history of electricity, 416 00:23:53,680 --> 00:23:56,440 Speaker 1: and these papers are great reads. Yeah, we'll make sure 417 00:23:56,480 --> 00:23:58,320 Speaker 1: to link out to some of her materials on the 418 00:23:58,400 --> 00:24:00,400 Speaker 1: landing page for this episode of Stuff to Your Mind 419 00:24:00,400 --> 00:24:02,240 Speaker 1: dot Com, because, yeah, she seems to be one of 420 00:24:02,640 --> 00:24:07,160 Speaker 1: the forefront researchers and historians on the history of electricity. Yeah. 421 00:24:07,200 --> 00:24:10,639 Speaker 1: So coming back to these sparking salons, So, in the 422 00:24:10,840 --> 00:24:15,640 Speaker 1: Enlightenment climate of eighteenth century Europe, public demonstrations of electrical 423 00:24:15,640 --> 00:24:21,040 Speaker 1: phenomenon experiments became really popular forms of entertainment among the wealthy. 424 00:24:21,800 --> 00:24:24,199 Speaker 1: So if you walked into a Parisian salon in the 425 00:24:24,240 --> 00:24:28,400 Speaker 1: mid seventeen hundreds, you might find a horde of socialites 426 00:24:28,880 --> 00:24:32,600 Speaker 1: sitting silent in the dark, watching a lecturer on natural 427 00:24:32,640 --> 00:24:37,360 Speaker 1: philosophy charge and or hanging atop a spike until it glowed. 428 00:24:37,880 --> 00:24:41,560 Speaker 1: Or they might give an audience member shocks of static electricity. 429 00:24:41,920 --> 00:24:44,240 Speaker 1: And another funny thing you might see would be Benjamin 430 00:24:44,280 --> 00:24:47,399 Speaker 1: Franklin sitting in the audience as this was his scene. 431 00:24:47,960 --> 00:24:51,480 Speaker 1: This was like, this was like the DC punk scene, 432 00:24:51,880 --> 00:24:55,480 Speaker 1: but the Paris electricity scene. Yeah, it's that much a scene. 433 00:24:55,520 --> 00:25:00,320 Speaker 1: One of the scenes that Franklin frequented. Uh, in the city. Okay. 434 00:25:00,320 --> 00:25:02,439 Speaker 1: But so it was during the seventeen forties that the 435 00:25:02,600 --> 00:25:06,200 Speaker 1: educated audiences in Europe and North America really became familiar 436 00:25:06,640 --> 00:25:09,520 Speaker 1: with the power of the electric fire. And it wasn't 437 00:25:09,600 --> 00:25:12,240 Speaker 1: just Benjamin Franklin and his inner circle that we're showing 438 00:25:12,240 --> 00:25:16,000 Speaker 1: off all the sparkling experiments. There was a whole generation 439 00:25:16,119 --> 00:25:20,520 Speaker 1: of what what Bertucci calls itinerant lecturers, which is great 440 00:25:20,520 --> 00:25:23,400 Speaker 1: because that makes me think of itinerant priests or itinerant 441 00:25:23,440 --> 00:25:28,639 Speaker 1: evangelists traveling around spreading the gospel message, except in this case, 442 00:25:28,720 --> 00:25:33,360 Speaker 1: this is the electricity gospel. So they would tour from 443 00:25:33,440 --> 00:25:37,800 Speaker 1: place to place giving demonstrations. Uh, in an early incarnation 444 00:25:37,880 --> 00:25:40,840 Speaker 1: of what we might call edutainment. I would say, they 445 00:25:40,880 --> 00:25:44,840 Speaker 1: would show off some sparks, show off some electromagnetic attraction, 446 00:25:44,880 --> 00:25:48,199 Speaker 1: and they'd say, are you not edutane? Well, what are 447 00:25:48,200 --> 00:25:50,200 Speaker 1: some examples of some of the demonstrations that they would 448 00:25:50,280 --> 00:25:54,720 Speaker 1: roll out for the for the entertainment hungry population. Right, 449 00:25:54,760 --> 00:25:57,840 Speaker 1: So one would be uh, having somebody touch in electrical 450 00:25:57,880 --> 00:26:00,879 Speaker 1: apparatus and then you'd see their hair rise up, or 451 00:26:00,960 --> 00:26:03,920 Speaker 1: you could see somebody become electrically charged and then attract 452 00:26:04,040 --> 00:26:08,360 Speaker 1: small objects with one's hands. Or you could use electrostatic 453 00:26:08,440 --> 00:26:12,359 Speaker 1: induction to make objects move, for example, maybe maybe making 454 00:26:12,480 --> 00:26:16,000 Speaker 1: bells ring or something. Or you could darken the room 455 00:26:16,359 --> 00:26:20,640 Speaker 1: and show sparks jumping between objects, or electro luminescent glowing 456 00:26:20,680 --> 00:26:23,639 Speaker 1: inside glass containers. Now, the great thing about this, I 457 00:26:23,640 --> 00:26:25,520 Speaker 1: meagine a lot of people are thinking this is and 458 00:26:25,600 --> 00:26:28,600 Speaker 1: from a modern perspective, you think of Mr Wizard, you 459 00:26:28,640 --> 00:26:34,120 Speaker 1: think of various various science shows. For me, I think Beakman. Yeah, 460 00:26:34,119 --> 00:26:37,040 Speaker 1: for me, I'm also reminded of the sort of street 461 00:26:37,080 --> 00:26:39,720 Speaker 1: festival they have for the World Science Festival in New 462 00:26:39,800 --> 00:26:42,560 Speaker 1: York City every year, where kids go around, they go 463 00:26:42,560 --> 00:26:46,359 Speaker 1: to different science booths and there's always at least one 464 00:26:46,600 --> 00:26:48,679 Speaker 1: where they have some sort of electrical experiment going on. 465 00:26:48,720 --> 00:26:53,679 Speaker 1: I mean it's electrical experiments lend themselves so well to 466 00:26:53,680 --> 00:26:56,920 Speaker 1: to public lectures in public displays, and we're still into 467 00:26:56,960 --> 00:27:00,160 Speaker 1: them to this day. Yes, absolutely, I mean it it's 468 00:27:00,160 --> 00:27:03,240 Speaker 1: important to notice how much of this was just spectacle. 469 00:27:03,920 --> 00:27:06,880 Speaker 1: I don't know how much the average person was learning 470 00:27:07,040 --> 00:27:10,440 Speaker 1: from these demonstrations and the salons, especially given how little 471 00:27:10,760 --> 00:27:14,080 Speaker 1: the people lecturing probably knew about electricity. Like we said, 472 00:27:14,240 --> 00:27:17,439 Speaker 1: they didn't know about electrons, yet we didn't know what 473 00:27:17,600 --> 00:27:21,600 Speaker 1: the electrical fire was. There were a lot of suppositions, 474 00:27:21,640 --> 00:27:26,000 Speaker 1: you might say, But but it's funny to imagine the 475 00:27:26,359 --> 00:27:29,919 Speaker 1: level of confidence in the display and the spectacle of 476 00:27:29,960 --> 00:27:35,440 Speaker 1: it versus what was actually probably misinformation being communicated to people. 477 00:27:35,520 --> 00:27:38,439 Speaker 1: So the demonstrations really played to the senses. They had 478 00:27:38,480 --> 00:27:42,399 Speaker 1: flashes of light, crackling noises, smells even sometimes like a 479 00:27:42,440 --> 00:27:45,679 Speaker 1: sulfurous smell in the aftermath of things. A couple of 480 00:27:45,680 --> 00:27:49,600 Speaker 1: examples of people who would give these things. One was 481 00:27:50,359 --> 00:27:54,000 Speaker 1: Jean Antoine Melas, who was a French physicist and instrument maker, 482 00:27:54,359 --> 00:27:57,240 Speaker 1: and he would arrange experiments with chains of people holding 483 00:27:57,320 --> 00:28:00,720 Speaker 1: hands who would be shocked in unison is the person 484 00:28:00,760 --> 00:28:03,240 Speaker 1: at one end of the chain touched the rod or 485 00:28:03,280 --> 00:28:06,040 Speaker 1: the inner surface of the laden jar, and the person 486 00:28:06,080 --> 00:28:09,040 Speaker 1: at the other end touched the outer surface. And there's 487 00:28:09,080 --> 00:28:12,600 Speaker 1: something almost weirdly orgiastic about this, isn't there. Yeah, it 488 00:28:12,720 --> 00:28:16,200 Speaker 1: reminds me of these these scenes of seances taking place 489 00:28:16,400 --> 00:28:19,280 Speaker 1: more or less around the same pole hands in the circle. Yeah, yeah, 490 00:28:19,400 --> 00:28:21,359 Speaker 1: and and and all of this also reminds me of 491 00:28:21,400 --> 00:28:24,960 Speaker 1: magic tricks, except in this case the magic is real. 492 00:28:25,119 --> 00:28:27,960 Speaker 1: And the magic is a is a natural phenomenon that 493 00:28:28,080 --> 00:28:30,000 Speaker 1: we don't have at this point, we don't have all 494 00:28:30,040 --> 00:28:32,760 Speaker 1: the answers for, and thus still retains a lot of 495 00:28:32,800 --> 00:28:35,680 Speaker 1: its magical qualities. Yeah. Yeah, So, as much as these 496 00:28:35,760 --> 00:28:40,760 Speaker 1: lecturers probably wanted to emphasize the scientific and natural nature 497 00:28:40,840 --> 00:28:45,440 Speaker 1: of the electrical phenomenon people were observing, there is undoubtedly 498 00:28:45,520 --> 00:28:49,840 Speaker 1: a very spiritual power to what people were experiencing at 499 00:28:49,880 --> 00:28:53,320 Speaker 1: these demonstrations, if you know what I mean. A couple 500 00:28:53,440 --> 00:28:55,520 Speaker 1: other things that might be showed off. One thing was 501 00:28:55,640 --> 00:28:58,440 Speaker 1: medical electricity began to emerge in this period in the 502 00:28:58,480 --> 00:29:01,680 Speaker 1: mid seventeen hundreds as this sort of a useful incarnation 503 00:29:01,800 --> 00:29:05,400 Speaker 1: of this force, which I mean, that's funny to imagine 504 00:29:05,400 --> 00:29:09,680 Speaker 1: back then. But though the medical utility of the electrical 505 00:29:09,720 --> 00:29:12,840 Speaker 1: fire was still debated, demonstrators began in this period to 506 00:29:12,960 --> 00:29:16,840 Speaker 1: definitely offer therapeutic electrical shocks to people who sought them 507 00:29:17,120 --> 00:29:20,960 Speaker 1: for I guess primarily conditions of the nerves. Yeah, I mean, 508 00:29:20,960 --> 00:29:24,440 Speaker 1: here's this electricity that has this kind of um, you know, 509 00:29:24,520 --> 00:29:27,719 Speaker 1: magical quality to it already, and you're definitely gonna feel it. 510 00:29:28,120 --> 00:29:31,560 Speaker 1: So you wrap a little bit of healing hocus pocus 511 00:29:31,680 --> 00:29:35,200 Speaker 1: language around it, and you have yourselves up potentially one 512 00:29:35,240 --> 00:29:37,680 Speaker 1: heck of a placebo there, right, yeah, yeah. And so 513 00:29:37,960 --> 00:29:41,000 Speaker 1: there were a couple other things that Bertucci mentions that 514 00:29:41,040 --> 00:29:44,320 Speaker 1: were often showed off. There were thunder houses and the 515 00:29:44,320 --> 00:29:47,160 Speaker 1: the Aurora flask. I love the idea of a thunder house. 516 00:29:47,200 --> 00:29:49,720 Speaker 1: This is it was basically a demonstration that was sort 517 00:29:49,720 --> 00:29:52,640 Speaker 1: of an ad for the lightning rod because it was 518 00:29:52,680 --> 00:29:55,640 Speaker 1: a model house. So imagine a dollhouse then with a 519 00:29:55,720 --> 00:29:58,000 Speaker 1: lightning rod sticking out the top of it. Then the 520 00:29:58,040 --> 00:30:01,560 Speaker 1: demonstrators would shock the house with electrical discharge and if 521 00:30:01,560 --> 00:30:04,560 Speaker 1: the rod was properly grounded, nothing would happen, but if 522 00:30:04,560 --> 00:30:06,920 Speaker 1: the rod was ungrounded, a shock to the house would 523 00:30:06,960 --> 00:30:10,840 Speaker 1: ignite gunpowder planted inside the dollhouse and cause an explosion. 524 00:30:11,600 --> 00:30:14,400 Speaker 1: And then also there was a thing called the Aurora flask, 525 00:30:14,440 --> 00:30:18,400 Speaker 1: which was a pear shaped glass bulb designed to simulate 526 00:30:18,440 --> 00:30:22,240 Speaker 1: the luminous display of the Aurora borealis inside a container. 527 00:30:22,880 --> 00:30:24,720 Speaker 1: So that's a weird way that we could put this 528 00:30:24,720 --> 00:30:30,440 Speaker 1: this amazingly beautiful, vast, uh natural display inside a bottle, 529 00:30:30,920 --> 00:30:33,720 Speaker 1: which is almost a metaphor for what these people were doing. 530 00:30:33,760 --> 00:30:37,040 Speaker 1: You know, they were taking the most powerful and mysterious, 531 00:30:37,760 --> 00:30:41,760 Speaker 1: huge grand forces of nature and capturing it and putting 532 00:30:41,800 --> 00:30:43,880 Speaker 1: it in a bottle that you could look into and 533 00:30:43,880 --> 00:30:46,520 Speaker 1: tap on the glass. Lightning in a bottle, And then 534 00:30:46,920 --> 00:30:48,680 Speaker 1: all the way to our modern time where what is 535 00:30:48,840 --> 00:30:51,320 Speaker 1: what is a light bulb but another form of lightning 536 00:30:51,320 --> 00:30:54,840 Speaker 1: in a bottle and yet the most mundane thing imaginable. Yeah, 537 00:30:54,880 --> 00:30:57,720 Speaker 1: And I think because partly because of all these demonstrations, 538 00:30:57,720 --> 00:31:02,560 Speaker 1: people began to think of electric the as as sort 539 00:31:02,600 --> 00:31:05,480 Speaker 1: of the the embodiment of all the force of the cosmos. 540 00:31:05,920 --> 00:31:08,080 Speaker 1: So in the second half of the eighteenth century, people 541 00:31:08,080 --> 00:31:10,800 Speaker 1: were beginning to explain all kinds of natural forces through 542 00:31:10,880 --> 00:31:14,760 Speaker 1: the the electrical fire. So obviously lightning and thunder, but 543 00:31:14,840 --> 00:31:20,240 Speaker 1: people started to say, well, earthquakes, that's probably electricity too, tornadoes, whirlpools, 544 00:31:20,240 --> 00:31:25,400 Speaker 1: it's all electricity. And Bertucci says, quote such demonstrations contributed 545 00:31:25,440 --> 00:31:30,960 Speaker 1: to the construction of an electrical cosmos. Health, sickness, thunderstorm, earthquakes, 546 00:31:30,960 --> 00:31:34,800 Speaker 1: and Aurora borealis all resulted from the motions of the 547 00:31:34,840 --> 00:31:38,640 Speaker 1: electrical fire. Again taking on what sounds like kind of 548 00:31:38,680 --> 00:31:41,760 Speaker 1: a spiritual aspect. It's almost like the the you know, 549 00:31:41,840 --> 00:31:44,640 Speaker 1: the power and love of God that controls the motions 550 00:31:44,680 --> 00:31:47,520 Speaker 1: of all the spheres. Yeah, the sense that they're they're 551 00:31:47,720 --> 00:31:51,320 Speaker 1: tapping into this hidden network of energy that underlies all things. 552 00:31:51,440 --> 00:31:54,959 Speaker 1: The kind of thing that I've seen, I've seen discussed 553 00:31:54,960 --> 00:31:58,080 Speaker 1: in various uh you know, accult or some sort of 554 00:31:58,240 --> 00:32:01,600 Speaker 1: spiritual uh papers, where they're talking about saying like they're 555 00:32:01,600 --> 00:32:04,040 Speaker 1: being a chaos matrix manith reality, and if you can 556 00:32:04,040 --> 00:32:06,959 Speaker 1: tap into that chaos matrix, then you have chaos chaos 557 00:32:07,000 --> 00:32:10,280 Speaker 1: magic at your disposal. Like this is. This is as 558 00:32:10,320 --> 00:32:12,920 Speaker 1: if one were suddenly saying, hey, we found the chaos 559 00:32:12,960 --> 00:32:16,400 Speaker 1: matrix and we can make the chaos magic fly from 560 00:32:16,440 --> 00:32:19,160 Speaker 1: the tips of our fingers. Now, what is the D 561 00:32:19,280 --> 00:32:22,960 Speaker 1: and D alignment of the electrical phantom? Is it chaotic 562 00:32:23,280 --> 00:32:27,320 Speaker 1: evil or chaotic neutral? I think chaotic neutral. It's all, 563 00:32:27,440 --> 00:32:32,480 Speaker 1: but it all depends on how you engage with it. Okay, 564 00:32:32,480 --> 00:32:34,080 Speaker 1: now we're gonna take a quick break, but when we 565 00:32:34,120 --> 00:32:36,280 Speaker 1: come back, we're gonna hear about one of the weirdest 566 00:32:36,320 --> 00:32:43,920 Speaker 1: demonstrations of the electrical fire. Hey, everybody, you know the 567 00:32:43,920 --> 00:32:47,840 Speaker 1: importance of having a quality, professional looking website out there today. 568 00:32:47,840 --> 00:32:50,080 Speaker 1: I mean, that's that's how you represent yourself to everybody, 569 00:32:50,080 --> 00:32:51,480 Speaker 1: and you want it to look sharp, you want it 570 00:32:51,520 --> 00:32:53,840 Speaker 1: to be easy to use, but you also don't want 571 00:32:53,880 --> 00:32:56,719 Speaker 1: to completely break your brain or have to learn some 572 00:32:56,760 --> 00:32:58,880 Speaker 1: sort of new code in order to build the thing. 573 00:32:59,120 --> 00:33:00,720 Speaker 1: Right if you if you just kind of go out 574 00:33:00,760 --> 00:33:02,920 Speaker 1: there into the wild and say I'm gonna make my 575 00:33:02,960 --> 00:33:05,240 Speaker 1: own personal website, you know what you're gonna end up with. 576 00:33:05,640 --> 00:33:07,640 Speaker 1: It's gonna look like it was made by somebody who 577 00:33:07,640 --> 00:33:09,840 Speaker 1: didn't know what they were doing, and even even to 578 00:33:09,960 --> 00:33:12,720 Speaker 1: get to that point, it's gonna be a rough journey. 579 00:33:12,760 --> 00:33:15,360 Speaker 1: But if you want to have a website that looks 580 00:33:15,440 --> 00:33:17,440 Speaker 1: like something that could have been made by a professional 581 00:33:17,480 --> 00:33:21,200 Speaker 1: web developer, even though you're not, you might want to 582 00:33:21,200 --> 00:33:24,600 Speaker 1: think about Squarespace. That's right, there's sites look professionally designed 583 00:33:24,600 --> 00:33:26,720 Speaker 1: regardless of your skill level. You don't need to learn 584 00:33:26,760 --> 00:33:30,120 Speaker 1: any code. The tools are intuitive, easy to use, and hey, 585 00:33:30,160 --> 00:33:32,160 Speaker 1: you get a free domain if you sign up for 586 00:33:32,200 --> 00:33:34,960 Speaker 1: a year, so you can start your free trial site 587 00:33:34,960 --> 00:33:37,680 Speaker 1: today at square space dot com. When you decide to 588 00:33:37,680 --> 00:33:40,360 Speaker 1: sign up for squarespace, make sure you use the offer 589 00:33:40,400 --> 00:33:44,240 Speaker 1: code mind blown. That's our code m I N D 590 00:33:44,480 --> 00:33:47,640 Speaker 1: B l O w N to get ten percent off 591 00:33:47,680 --> 00:33:57,400 Speaker 1: your first purchase Square space. You should all right, we're back, yes, 592 00:33:57,680 --> 00:33:59,480 Speaker 1: uh so we're going to discuss here the work of 593 00:33:59,520 --> 00:34:03,160 Speaker 1: once Steven Gray. Now, Stephen Gray did plenty of experiments 594 00:34:03,160 --> 00:34:06,920 Speaker 1: in electricity, right, yes, yeah, he was an English dier, 595 00:34:07,120 --> 00:34:10,360 Speaker 1: the son of a dire Uh. He was an astronomer 596 00:34:10,400 --> 00:34:14,719 Speaker 1: and uh indeed an electrical conduction pioneer. He's remembered for 597 00:34:14,719 --> 00:34:18,040 Speaker 1: a number of discoveries and the various he experiments he 598 00:34:18,080 --> 00:34:21,840 Speaker 1: conducted uh uh you know, showed how electricity moves. But 599 00:34:21,880 --> 00:34:25,879 Speaker 1: the most notable of these is his seventeen thirty one 600 00:34:25,920 --> 00:34:31,200 Speaker 1: experiment the Hanging Boy, which just a creepy name it is. 601 00:34:31,239 --> 00:34:33,360 Speaker 1: And you can we'll try to include some links to 602 00:34:33,360 --> 00:34:36,839 Speaker 1: some images of this, because there's some wonderful um schematics 603 00:34:36,880 --> 00:34:39,520 Speaker 1: for what this looked like, which don't still don't capture 604 00:34:39,560 --> 00:34:43,880 Speaker 1: the full majesty of what people saw, because it's just 605 00:34:43,960 --> 00:34:48,600 Speaker 1: it really resonates with occult dramatics, right yeah, I mean, 606 00:34:48,640 --> 00:34:50,560 Speaker 1: it's it's like something out of a Kin Russell movie. 607 00:34:51,360 --> 00:34:54,640 Speaker 1: I love that you make that comparison, because Ken Russell 608 00:34:54,680 --> 00:34:58,400 Speaker 1: really captures this kind of sense of the electrical demonstrations. 609 00:34:58,480 --> 00:35:01,680 Speaker 1: Right this this bizarre, our intersection of the magical and 610 00:35:01,680 --> 00:35:04,760 Speaker 1: the scientific. Yeah, totally. So I'm gonna try and present 611 00:35:04,800 --> 00:35:07,680 Speaker 1: it to you as if you were showing up for 612 00:35:07,920 --> 00:35:10,359 Speaker 1: a presentation of the Hanging Boy. Wait, so you're you're 613 00:35:10,440 --> 00:35:13,520 Speaker 1: you're saying I've accepted an invitation to come view the 614 00:35:13,600 --> 00:35:17,120 Speaker 1: Hanging Boy. Yes, yes, I'm that kind of person. You are. 615 00:35:16,920 --> 00:35:18,640 Speaker 1: You know, you're you're one of the local You're in 616 00:35:18,680 --> 00:35:21,000 Speaker 1: the local science community. You're you're interested in this kind 617 00:35:21,040 --> 00:35:23,279 Speaker 1: of thing. There's something cool going on, so you're gonna 618 00:35:23,280 --> 00:35:25,560 Speaker 1: go check it out. So you enter the private home 619 00:35:25,640 --> 00:35:28,880 Speaker 1: of a of another upstanding member of the scientific community, 620 00:35:28,920 --> 00:35:30,719 Speaker 1: and you come and you find that the furniture has 621 00:35:30,760 --> 00:35:34,160 Speaker 1: been rearranged, the lighting has been dimmed, and everyone is 622 00:35:34,200 --> 00:35:36,799 Speaker 1: gathered in the largest room of the house for this 623 00:35:36,920 --> 00:35:40,319 Speaker 1: very peculiar experiment. So you've been looking forward to it 624 00:35:40,400 --> 00:35:42,839 Speaker 1: for weeks. You're making a lot of assumptions about me 625 00:35:42,880 --> 00:35:45,520 Speaker 1: and my feelings towards the Hanging Boy. This is the 626 00:35:45,520 --> 00:35:47,839 Speaker 1: biggest thing. This was a hit all over Europe. This 627 00:35:47,920 --> 00:35:50,160 Speaker 1: is like finally getting to see cats or something, Right, 628 00:35:50,840 --> 00:35:53,920 Speaker 1: what is it? Tell me? Okay, so the main event 629 00:35:53,960 --> 00:35:57,239 Speaker 1: here is that a nine year old boy. Don't worry. 630 00:35:57,239 --> 00:35:59,400 Speaker 1: It's just a local street urchin and they've paid him 631 00:35:59,440 --> 00:36:02,400 Speaker 1: for his particip patient nine year old boys brought in 632 00:36:02,600 --> 00:36:08,279 Speaker 1: and swaddling clothes, you know, dressed essentially like cupid. Right, so, 633 00:36:08,280 --> 00:36:14,080 Speaker 1: so already we're we're engaging dramatic symbolic power here. And 634 00:36:14,120 --> 00:36:18,640 Speaker 1: then he is suspended from the ceiling by silk cords. 635 00:36:19,160 --> 00:36:21,879 Speaker 1: Oh they gotta be silk cords, of course. Oh yeah, yeah, 636 00:36:21,920 --> 00:36:24,920 Speaker 1: I mean, what are to to suspend the boy with 637 00:36:25,040 --> 00:36:27,880 Speaker 1: just rope would be weird and just out of keeping 638 00:36:27,880 --> 00:36:31,279 Speaker 1: with the symbolic drama of the thing. Right now, just 639 00:36:31,360 --> 00:36:35,160 Speaker 1: below the boy's head. Uh, they've positioned a stand on 640 00:36:35,239 --> 00:36:39,800 Speaker 1: which they've they've play small light flakes of brass. Well, meanwhile, 641 00:36:39,800 --> 00:36:43,720 Speaker 1: our friend Mr Gray here uh comes over with a 642 00:36:43,800 --> 00:36:48,360 Speaker 1: charged glass to essentially a friction generator, and he's holding 643 00:36:48,360 --> 00:36:50,920 Speaker 1: this near the boy's feet. And I'll read you a 644 00:36:51,000 --> 00:36:53,680 Speaker 1: quote to let and this is from the letters sent 645 00:36:54,040 --> 00:36:58,480 Speaker 1: from Stephen Gray to one Cromwell Mortimer. Upon the tubes 646 00:36:58,560 --> 00:37:01,600 Speaker 1: being rubbed and held near his feet without touching them, 647 00:37:01,880 --> 00:37:05,000 Speaker 1: the leaf brass was attracted to the boy's face with 648 00:37:05,000 --> 00:37:08,640 Speaker 1: with much vigor, so as to rise to the height 649 00:37:08,840 --> 00:37:12,800 Speaker 1: of eight and sometimes ten inches, so hold on with 650 00:37:13,080 --> 00:37:17,320 Speaker 1: So they were drawing uh pieces of brass leaf to 651 00:37:17,560 --> 00:37:20,040 Speaker 1: his face. Yes, so the boys hanging there from the silk, 652 00:37:20,320 --> 00:37:23,120 Speaker 1: he touches this electric wand of the boy's feet and 653 00:37:23,160 --> 00:37:26,719 Speaker 1: then all these flakes of metal began to to drift up, 654 00:37:27,000 --> 00:37:30,720 Speaker 1: fly up from the table through the air towards his face. Okay, 655 00:37:30,719 --> 00:37:32,919 Speaker 1: what else they got, Well, they would have the boy 656 00:37:33,080 --> 00:37:35,640 Speaker 1: reach out and turn the pages of a book without 657 00:37:35,680 --> 00:37:40,160 Speaker 1: physically touching it. Volunteers from the audience were invited to 658 00:37:40,160 --> 00:37:43,000 Speaker 1: touch the boy's hand, and in doing so, they were 659 00:37:43,000 --> 00:37:45,319 Speaker 1: able to turn the pages in the book with the 660 00:37:45,360 --> 00:37:49,000 Speaker 1: same electrical magic just by touching the boy's hand. And 661 00:37:49,360 --> 00:37:52,880 Speaker 1: finally the main event, the lights were dimmed and the 662 00:37:52,960 --> 00:37:56,239 Speaker 1: volunteer was asked to touch the boy's nose and that's 663 00:37:56,239 --> 00:38:01,200 Speaker 1: when crack, a visual spark flies between the flying boy 664 00:38:01,239 --> 00:38:05,640 Speaker 1: and the audience member. Wow. So this, I mean, the 665 00:38:05,680 --> 00:38:07,960 Speaker 1: whole thing is just fad with because there's a sense 666 00:38:08,000 --> 00:38:11,000 Speaker 1: of the boy is an angel but also a child 667 00:38:11,120 --> 00:38:15,200 Speaker 1: sacrifice exactly, there's a sense of child sacrifice, and they 668 00:38:15,239 --> 00:38:18,640 Speaker 1: kind of make him the sort of a literal embodiment 669 00:38:18,680 --> 00:38:21,560 Speaker 1: of electricity as is a is A is a virgin 670 00:38:21,680 --> 00:38:26,200 Speaker 1: as this this this child that is without fault, you know, 671 00:38:26,200 --> 00:38:29,080 Speaker 1: a holy, blameless creature. Well, there you get into something 672 00:38:29,080 --> 00:38:30,760 Speaker 1: else that I think it's going to be very important 673 00:38:30,800 --> 00:38:33,439 Speaker 1: to talk about, because there's this mysterium, there's this great 674 00:38:33,560 --> 00:38:37,120 Speaker 1: strange mystery about what the electrical fire is. There's this 675 00:38:37,239 --> 00:38:40,960 Speaker 1: spiritual element to it. But then there is also a 676 00:38:41,080 --> 00:38:47,359 Speaker 1: very clear emerging theme of sexuality to electricity, because one 677 00:38:47,400 --> 00:38:49,520 Speaker 1: of the notes that I got from Bertucci about the 678 00:38:49,520 --> 00:38:52,759 Speaker 1: hanging boy experiment was that sometimes you mentioned that he 679 00:38:52,760 --> 00:38:56,359 Speaker 1: would transfer the electric fire to somebody else and they 680 00:38:56,360 --> 00:38:59,160 Speaker 1: would be able to attract things. Well, she mentions that 681 00:38:59,239 --> 00:39:03,000 Speaker 1: sometimes the boy transmitted the electric fire to a young 682 00:39:03,080 --> 00:39:07,080 Speaker 1: girl who would attract light objects to herself. So strangely 683 00:39:07,160 --> 00:39:10,400 Speaker 1: sexual theme. There's like the passage of the thing across 684 00:39:10,480 --> 00:39:13,120 Speaker 1: the sex barrier. And this wasn't the only case of 685 00:39:13,160 --> 00:39:19,200 Speaker 1: sexual themes emerging in electrical demonstrations. For example, Bertucci tells 686 00:39:19,239 --> 00:39:21,520 Speaker 1: us in one of her papers that the presence of 687 00:39:21,560 --> 00:39:25,480 Speaker 1: women and the accentuation of sex differences became a crucial 688 00:39:25,600 --> 00:39:29,480 Speaker 1: part of these electrical demonstrations in the eighteenth century. For example, 689 00:39:29,760 --> 00:39:35,919 Speaker 1: a really popular experiment was called the electrifying venus. Yeah, 690 00:39:35,960 --> 00:39:39,000 Speaker 1: also known as the electric kiss, which was invented by 691 00:39:39,040 --> 00:39:42,919 Speaker 1: the German professor Georg Matthias Boza. And it goes like this. 692 00:39:43,120 --> 00:39:46,480 Speaker 1: So you've got a beautiful lady standing on an insulated 693 00:39:46,560 --> 00:39:51,960 Speaker 1: stool and an electrical apparatus charges her body with electricity, 694 00:39:52,000 --> 00:39:55,799 Speaker 1: so this would probably be like a friction generator. And 695 00:39:56,000 --> 00:40:00,440 Speaker 1: after she's charged up, the demonstrator invites general and from 696 00:40:00,440 --> 00:40:03,399 Speaker 1: the audience to come up and steal a kiss from 697 00:40:03,400 --> 00:40:08,239 Speaker 1: the electric venus. Unfortunately, for these amorous gentlemen, as they 698 00:40:08,239 --> 00:40:11,800 Speaker 1: approached the charged venus with their lips, they would receive 699 00:40:11,880 --> 00:40:14,680 Speaker 1: a spark to the mouth and that would drive them 700 00:40:14,680 --> 00:40:19,160 Speaker 1: back and discourage further attempts. Okay, so imagine how exciting 701 00:40:19,200 --> 00:40:21,200 Speaker 1: this must have been to, you know, a court lady 702 00:40:21,200 --> 00:40:24,120 Speaker 1: in the seventeen hundreds who was sick of the advances 703 00:40:24,160 --> 00:40:27,240 Speaker 1: and sexual harassment of the aristocratic men in her circle. 704 00:40:27,320 --> 00:40:30,560 Speaker 1: They even try to kiss there and they get a shock, right, uh. 705 00:40:30,680 --> 00:40:34,120 Speaker 1: So Bertucci goes on to note, like like the invisible things, 706 00:40:34,160 --> 00:40:39,080 Speaker 1: except for exact for horny aristocrats. So Bertucci goes on 707 00:40:39,120 --> 00:40:42,680 Speaker 1: to note that Boza even wrote a poem about electricity. 708 00:40:42,880 --> 00:40:45,160 Speaker 1: He was kind of a showman type. He wrote a 709 00:40:45,239 --> 00:40:48,200 Speaker 1: poem about electricity, which he dedicated to the Princess of 710 00:40:48,239 --> 00:40:52,600 Speaker 1: Gotha and the Duchess of Brutal Colorath, who were attendees 711 00:40:52,680 --> 00:40:55,280 Speaker 1: of his demonstrations. And there's a section from the poem 712 00:40:55,360 --> 00:40:59,360 Speaker 1: she quotes. It says, once only what temerity I kissed 713 00:40:59,480 --> 00:41:02,640 Speaker 1: venus ending on pitch. It pained me to the quick. 714 00:41:02,960 --> 00:41:07,160 Speaker 1: My lips trembled, my mouth quivered, my teeth almost broke. 715 00:41:08,800 --> 00:41:13,080 Speaker 1: That's intense stuff. So even the demonstrator himself, knowing the risks, 716 00:41:13,200 --> 00:41:16,840 Speaker 1: could not resist an attempt to kiss the sparking venus, 717 00:41:18,320 --> 00:41:21,319 Speaker 1: but to please the fellows of the salons that they 718 00:41:21,320 --> 00:41:25,160 Speaker 1: would not be entirely discouraged in their feats of electrical manliness, 719 00:41:25,200 --> 00:41:28,800 Speaker 1: because for their amusement they could wield an electrified sword 720 00:41:29,280 --> 00:41:32,440 Speaker 1: and use it to ignite small quantities of liquor. All right, 721 00:41:32,440 --> 00:41:33,880 Speaker 1: Well they had that, and then to just sort of 722 00:41:34,040 --> 00:41:36,799 Speaker 1: leave everybody on a good note, right right, Yeah, So 723 00:41:36,880 --> 00:41:40,120 Speaker 1: the the psycho sexual significance of electricity didn't even in 724 00:41:40,239 --> 00:41:43,200 Speaker 1: their boza. That same guy came up with the theory 725 00:41:43,320 --> 00:41:47,200 Speaker 1: of the sexology of electric fire, and it's about as 726 00:41:47,239 --> 00:41:49,520 Speaker 1: male chauvinist as you would guess. I want to quote 727 00:41:49,560 --> 00:41:54,280 Speaker 1: from Bertucci, who writes characterizing it, the male fire emitted 728 00:41:54,320 --> 00:41:59,320 Speaker 1: by metals and animal bodies was unsurprisingly strong and powerful. Sparks, 729 00:41:59,360 --> 00:42:02,759 Speaker 1: with their crack cling sound, were visible manifestations of this 730 00:42:02,880 --> 00:42:06,560 Speaker 1: kind of fire. The female fire instead, was a weak, 731 00:42:06,719 --> 00:42:11,680 Speaker 1: luminous emanation, the kind of light that characterized the Aurora borealis. 732 00:42:11,880 --> 00:42:14,799 Speaker 1: I love that because there is kind of using science 733 00:42:15,800 --> 00:42:19,320 Speaker 1: to recreate Daoism in this case. You know, the whole 734 00:42:19,880 --> 00:42:23,719 Speaker 1: division of the yin and yang energies defining the universe. Oh, 735 00:42:23,800 --> 00:42:26,000 Speaker 1: does that have a male female element? Oh? Yeah, yeah, 736 00:42:26,040 --> 00:42:29,400 Speaker 1: one is like the male is is heat and power 737 00:42:29,520 --> 00:42:33,080 Speaker 1: and strength, and the female energy is uh is colder 738 00:42:33,200 --> 00:42:37,120 Speaker 1: and more subtle in their their opposites in the universe. Well, 739 00:42:37,440 --> 00:42:41,319 Speaker 1: that's like the cosmic electric spience spirituality yet again, So 740 00:42:41,440 --> 00:42:43,600 Speaker 1: through the second half of the eighteenth century, there was 741 00:42:43,640 --> 00:42:48,600 Speaker 1: a lot of popular thinking that associated electricity with sex, virility, 742 00:42:48,640 --> 00:42:52,400 Speaker 1: and fertility. Electrical imagery showed up in erotic poetry all 743 00:42:52,400 --> 00:42:57,399 Speaker 1: the time. They'll be talks about sparks and friction and UH, 744 00:42:57,440 --> 00:43:00,960 Speaker 1: and medical experts even promoted sex sual health cares I 745 00:43:00,960 --> 00:43:03,120 Speaker 1: should have said, experts. You couldn't hear me doing air 746 00:43:03,200 --> 00:43:07,719 Speaker 1: quotes medical quote. Experts promoted sexual health care is via 747 00:43:07,760 --> 00:43:10,080 Speaker 1: the electrical fire. And there will be more on that 748 00:43:10,080 --> 00:43:12,360 Speaker 1: when we talk about a guy named James Graham in 749 00:43:12,400 --> 00:43:17,359 Speaker 1: the next episode. But there's a weird paradox emerging here 750 00:43:17,360 --> 00:43:23,160 Speaker 1: with the relationship between electricity and virility and health. How 751 00:43:23,239 --> 00:43:26,400 Speaker 1: come the body seems to be able to be, uh, 752 00:43:26,520 --> 00:43:30,040 Speaker 1: I don't know, sort of animated by electricity in one sense, 753 00:43:30,040 --> 00:43:33,359 Speaker 1: you could be sparked into action, and yet the discharge 754 00:43:33,360 --> 00:43:36,440 Speaker 1: of electricity from a laden jar might be enough to 755 00:43:36,600 --> 00:43:41,479 Speaker 1: kill you. That seems like a weird tension there, right, Yeah, 756 00:43:41,800 --> 00:43:44,160 Speaker 1: it kind of comes back to that, that that sort 757 00:43:44,200 --> 00:43:48,920 Speaker 1: of weird Dallastu interpretation of male and female energies to 758 00:43:48,920 --> 00:43:51,080 Speaker 1: a certain extent. Yeah, And so later in the seventeen 759 00:43:51,160 --> 00:43:53,799 Speaker 1: hundreds this comes to a head, I think in the 760 00:43:53,960 --> 00:43:58,879 Speaker 1: argument about the nature of animal electricity. So, like we said, 761 00:43:58,880 --> 00:44:02,040 Speaker 1: there are electric fishes and uh so there was some 762 00:44:02,200 --> 00:44:06,440 Speaker 1: knowledge about different types of bioelectricity. Uh, but but what 763 00:44:06,600 --> 00:44:09,839 Speaker 1: happened in the in the seventeen eighties, Well, we had 764 00:44:09,880 --> 00:44:13,120 Speaker 1: a man by the name of Luigi Galvani. Alright, he 765 00:44:13,200 --> 00:44:18,919 Speaker 1: was mid seventeen eighties Italian physician, and he he said 766 00:44:18,960 --> 00:44:23,480 Speaker 1: Italian with an Italian accent. Well, you can't say Luigi 767 00:44:23,520 --> 00:44:26,000 Speaker 1: Galvani without giving in to it a little bit, right. 768 00:44:26,680 --> 00:44:29,520 Speaker 1: So in one of his earlier experiments, he connected the 769 00:44:29,560 --> 00:44:32,440 Speaker 1: nerves of a recently dead frog to a long metal 770 00:44:32,520 --> 00:44:36,359 Speaker 1: wire and pointed towards the sky during a thunderstorm. Uh. 771 00:44:36,400 --> 00:44:39,720 Speaker 1: And then with each flash the dog the frog moved again, 772 00:44:40,200 --> 00:44:44,360 Speaker 1: as if with life. So the dead frog and and 773 00:44:44,480 --> 00:44:48,400 Speaker 1: this this suggests a kind of mechanical connection between the 774 00:44:48,440 --> 00:44:51,200 Speaker 1: parts of the body and the electrical fire. Right. Indeed, 775 00:44:51,200 --> 00:44:53,759 Speaker 1: I mean this is where we get the term galvanism from, 776 00:44:53,960 --> 00:44:57,600 Speaker 1: which refers to muscle contractions due to an electric current. Now, 777 00:44:57,640 --> 00:45:01,480 Speaker 1: at the time, Galvani referred to this as animal electricity, 778 00:45:02,040 --> 00:45:06,319 Speaker 1: thinking he discovered a unique form of electricity, something intrinsic 779 00:45:06,360 --> 00:45:11,560 Speaker 1: to the muscle tissue. So external electricity could galvanize its sure, 780 00:45:12,040 --> 00:45:14,600 Speaker 1: But his argument was that it also possessed its own 781 00:45:14,880 --> 00:45:17,480 Speaker 1: unique electricity as well. So he was saying, these were 782 00:45:17,760 --> 00:45:22,160 Speaker 1: the bioelectricity and the external electricity were different types of 783 00:45:22,160 --> 00:45:24,760 Speaker 1: electricity exactly. Yeah, the you but you had two different 784 00:45:24,840 --> 00:45:29,239 Speaker 1: species of electricity to deal with here Um, and this 785 00:45:29,280 --> 00:45:33,279 Speaker 1: didn't set well with everyone, particularly another name that resonates 786 00:45:33,320 --> 00:45:38,960 Speaker 1: with electrical history, um Alessandro Volta. You can hear the 787 00:45:38,960 --> 00:45:42,560 Speaker 1: electrical terms in both of their last names, like Galvinize 788 00:45:42,640 --> 00:45:45,080 Speaker 1: and Volta. Yeah, so you know that this is this 789 00:45:45,120 --> 00:45:49,200 Speaker 1: isn't just some nobody entering the fray. So Volta. He 790 00:45:49,280 --> 00:45:52,279 Speaker 1: walks in, and he's intent on disproving animal electricity. He 791 00:45:52,320 --> 00:45:55,680 Speaker 1: doesn't buy it. He asserts that the animals here in 792 00:45:55,960 --> 00:46:00,640 Speaker 1: Um in Galvani's experiments reacted to electricity produced by two 793 00:46:00,640 --> 00:46:03,879 Speaker 1: different metals used to connect their nerves and muscles, and 794 00:46:04,120 --> 00:46:07,240 Speaker 1: and that it's not any kind of intrinsic special electricity, 795 00:46:07,280 --> 00:46:10,880 Speaker 1: and this argument eventually wins over the scientific community. Um 796 00:46:10,920 --> 00:46:14,319 Speaker 1: Galvani conducted experiments to counter the claim, but never got 797 00:46:14,400 --> 00:46:17,520 Speaker 1: very far in trying to convince anyone and eventually dies, 798 00:46:17,760 --> 00:46:20,600 Speaker 1: but obviously showing a connection between the workings of the 799 00:46:20,680 --> 00:46:25,359 Speaker 1: human body, which was still in many senses, were mysterious 800 00:46:25,400 --> 00:46:29,360 Speaker 1: at the time and and infused with spiritual and soul 801 00:46:29,520 --> 00:46:34,960 Speaker 1: ish potential. With this supposedly, I don't know purely natural 802 00:46:35,080 --> 00:46:39,560 Speaker 1: force like electricity that had to cause some feelings of 803 00:46:39,640 --> 00:46:42,279 Speaker 1: maybe aporia, right yeah, yeah, I mean, and certainly I 804 00:46:42,320 --> 00:46:44,840 Speaker 1: don't want to imply that Galvani wasn't onto something and 805 00:46:44,960 --> 00:46:48,040 Speaker 1: wasn't himself, you know, a very intelligent guy that was 806 00:46:48,080 --> 00:46:51,000 Speaker 1: making some breakthroughs in our understanding electricity. But of course 807 00:46:51,040 --> 00:46:56,160 Speaker 1: these bioelectricity beliefs led to some pretty interesting and weird experiments. 808 00:46:56,280 --> 00:47:00,400 Speaker 1: Right yeah. Fast forward to January eighteen o three. Convicted 809 00:47:00,480 --> 00:47:05,480 Speaker 1: murderer George Forster or Foster, depending on which source you're 810 00:47:05,480 --> 00:47:09,280 Speaker 1: looking at. He dies by hanging at London's Newgate Prison 811 00:47:09,760 --> 00:47:13,160 Speaker 1: and then attendance transport his body to the Royal College 812 00:47:13,160 --> 00:47:16,240 Speaker 1: of Surgeons, also in London, so that this in itself 813 00:47:16,280 --> 00:47:18,759 Speaker 1: wasn't an uncommon practice. You have a fresh body, it's 814 00:47:18,760 --> 00:47:23,160 Speaker 1: perfect for the exploration of human anatomy. But then they 815 00:47:23,280 --> 00:47:26,880 Speaker 1: roll the corpse into a crowded operating theater where owaits 816 00:47:27,400 --> 00:47:32,880 Speaker 1: Giovanni Aldini, the nephew of the late louisgi Galvani. Yeah, 817 00:47:33,040 --> 00:47:37,440 Speaker 1: and as you would imagine given the podcast episode to hear, uh, 818 00:47:37,480 --> 00:47:41,759 Speaker 1: he's waiting with a battery and some connecting rods, so 819 00:47:41,880 --> 00:47:44,200 Speaker 1: you know what he's gonna They've got a corpse coming in. 820 00:47:44,800 --> 00:47:47,960 Speaker 1: He's stitting there with this battery? Is he is he 821 00:47:48,000 --> 00:47:51,440 Speaker 1: twirling his mustache? I I should hope so. Um, maybe 822 00:47:51,440 --> 00:47:55,120 Speaker 1: even with electricity. But this is from the records. This 823 00:47:55,200 --> 00:47:58,279 Speaker 1: is what Alboni had to say about the results here. 824 00:47:58,600 --> 00:48:01,759 Speaker 1: On the first application of the arcs, the job began 825 00:48:01,800 --> 00:48:05,680 Speaker 1: to quiver, The adjoining muscles were horribly contorted, and the 826 00:48:05,760 --> 00:48:10,080 Speaker 1: left eye actually opened. In the subsequent part of the process, 827 00:48:10,320 --> 00:48:13,680 Speaker 1: the right hand was raised and clinched, and the legs 828 00:48:13,680 --> 00:48:16,920 Speaker 1: and thighs were set in motion. It appeared to the 829 00:48:17,000 --> 00:48:21,400 Speaker 1: uninformed part of the bystanders as if the wretched man 830 00:48:21,760 --> 00:48:25,400 Speaker 1: was on the eve of being restored to life, you know. 831 00:48:25,560 --> 00:48:28,000 Speaker 1: And I bet for the people at the time, they 832 00:48:28,040 --> 00:48:31,960 Speaker 1: didn't necessarily know that wasn't going to happen. Yeah, I mean, 833 00:48:32,040 --> 00:48:35,000 Speaker 1: we we know now, but yeah, at the time, we 834 00:48:35,000 --> 00:48:37,200 Speaker 1: were still figuring out how electricity work, what it did 835 00:48:37,239 --> 00:48:39,640 Speaker 1: to the body, and so so, unlesson four members of 836 00:48:39,640 --> 00:48:42,080 Speaker 1: the audience, it seemed entirely possible that he might have 837 00:48:42,120 --> 00:48:44,799 Speaker 1: brought this character back to life in some form. If 838 00:48:44,840 --> 00:48:48,400 Speaker 1: it's conceivable that the electricity is the soul, is the 839 00:48:48,440 --> 00:48:52,040 Speaker 1: soul that animates the flesh and uh and the death 840 00:48:52,080 --> 00:48:55,879 Speaker 1: causes that this electricity to evaporate. Could you restore the 841 00:48:55,920 --> 00:48:58,800 Speaker 1: soul that animates the flesh to the body by charging 842 00:48:58,840 --> 00:49:01,239 Speaker 1: it back up. Yeah. And Plus if you're if you're 843 00:49:01,280 --> 00:49:05,960 Speaker 1: buying into a basic bio mechanical understanding or certainly mechanical 844 00:49:06,040 --> 00:49:10,320 Speaker 1: understanding of the body. If electricity physically animates the body, 845 00:49:10,320 --> 00:49:13,920 Speaker 1: then why not the mind itself? Why not the soul? 846 00:49:14,080 --> 00:49:18,440 Speaker 1: Why not the person entire um? And of course a 847 00:49:18,440 --> 00:49:22,800 Speaker 1: lot of this probably instantly brings to mind images of Frankenstein, 848 00:49:22,880 --> 00:49:26,360 Speaker 1: of Dr Frankenstein bringing his creation to life. Now funny, 849 00:49:26,400 --> 00:49:29,320 Speaker 1: I remember electricity being a big part of the movie, 850 00:49:29,480 --> 00:49:31,799 Speaker 1: But I and when I've read the book, I don't 851 00:49:31,800 --> 00:49:35,120 Speaker 1: remember much mentioning of electricity in it. There's not a 852 00:49:35,160 --> 00:49:38,440 Speaker 1: lot um but a couple of him. First of all, 853 00:49:38,560 --> 00:49:41,640 Speaker 1: like the timeline works perfectly for this. So Mary Shelley 854 00:49:41,920 --> 00:49:45,040 Speaker 1: is a book comes out in eighteen eighteen, so that's, 855 00:49:45,280 --> 00:49:47,279 Speaker 1: you know, just just a couple of decades in the wake. 856 00:49:47,360 --> 00:49:48,880 Speaker 1: I think she would have been she would have been 857 00:49:48,880 --> 00:49:52,160 Speaker 1: a small child at the time of of the Georgia 858 00:49:52,280 --> 00:49:58,680 Speaker 1: Forster Foster reanimation experiment. But there's actually a portion of 859 00:49:58,760 --> 00:50:01,680 Speaker 1: Frankenstein that reads this follows. Before this, I was not 860 00:50:01,840 --> 00:50:06,360 Speaker 1: unacquainted with the more obvious laws of electricity. On this occasion, 861 00:50:06,400 --> 00:50:09,120 Speaker 1: a man of great research and natural philosophy was with 862 00:50:09,239 --> 00:50:13,080 Speaker 1: us and excited by this catastrophe. He entered on the 863 00:50:13,120 --> 00:50:15,680 Speaker 1: explanation of a theory which he had formed on the 864 00:50:15,680 --> 00:50:19,920 Speaker 1: subject of electricity and galvinism, which was at once new 865 00:50:20,080 --> 00:50:25,480 Speaker 1: and astonishing to me. Quote Dr Frankenstein well, as will 866 00:50:25,680 --> 00:50:28,440 Speaker 1: mention in the next episode, Mary Shelley had more than 867 00:50:28,480 --> 00:50:33,240 Speaker 1: one influence of mad Science on her life. Probably, Oh, yes, yes, um, 868 00:50:33,280 --> 00:50:36,839 Speaker 1: because certainly, uh, I think you can see in Frankenstein. 869 00:50:36,880 --> 00:50:38,520 Speaker 1: I mean, there's a lot to say about Frankenstein. We 870 00:50:38,520 --> 00:50:42,000 Speaker 1: could do a whole podcast about, uh, the cultural and 871 00:50:42,080 --> 00:50:46,520 Speaker 1: scientific underpinnings of that book. But but yeah, there's a 872 00:50:46,560 --> 00:50:49,480 Speaker 1: lot of the this new age of of understanding and 873 00:50:49,520 --> 00:50:53,920 Speaker 1: reason of our attempt to to harness all these natural 874 00:50:54,840 --> 00:50:58,520 Speaker 1: wonders with our scientific understanding. You see that in these 875 00:50:58,800 --> 00:51:01,680 Speaker 1: these these electric experiments we've discussed. You see that in 876 00:51:01,719 --> 00:51:04,920 Speaker 1: Frankenstein as well. Okay, well, I think that's gonna have 877 00:51:04,960 --> 00:51:07,439 Speaker 1: to be it for our first episode, the first part 878 00:51:07,440 --> 00:51:09,719 Speaker 1: of this series, and we've we've made it from the 879 00:51:09,760 --> 00:51:13,000 Speaker 1: mystery of the ancients, to the to the to the 880 00:51:13,080 --> 00:51:16,880 Speaker 1: strange obsession with electrical fire, and the electrical cosmos of 881 00:51:16,960 --> 00:51:20,480 Speaker 1: the mid and late seventeen hundreds. But in the next 882 00:51:20,520 --> 00:51:24,960 Speaker 1: episode we're going to chase that rabbit further down the 883 00:51:24,960 --> 00:51:28,120 Speaker 1: circuit circuit. Yeah, I think that'll be it. Yeah, yeah, 884 00:51:28,160 --> 00:51:31,799 Speaker 1: so yeah. In the next episode, electric chairs, uh, electrical 885 00:51:32,000 --> 00:51:36,839 Speaker 1: personal massage devices, electric religion, um, and you know, there 886 00:51:36,880 --> 00:51:39,000 Speaker 1: will be a little bit of Frankenstein, but don't worry, 887 00:51:39,000 --> 00:51:42,560 Speaker 1: we'll also fit John Wesley in there as well, and 888 00:51:42,600 --> 00:51:46,120 Speaker 1: of course the striking conclusion to the story we opened 889 00:51:46,160 --> 00:51:50,520 Speaker 1: with about the first legal electrocution. Indeed, and until then, 890 00:51:50,680 --> 00:51:52,120 Speaker 1: be sure to check out Stuff to Blow your Mind 891 00:51:52,120 --> 00:51:53,719 Speaker 1: dot com. That's the mothership. That's where we will find 892 00:51:53,760 --> 00:51:57,120 Speaker 1: all the podcast episodes. You'll find blog post videos, links 893 00:51:57,120 --> 00:52:00,000 Speaker 1: out to our various social media accounts such as Facebook 894 00:52:00,040 --> 00:52:02,200 Speaker 1: and Twitter. We'll blow the mind on both of those 895 00:52:02,200 --> 00:52:04,359 Speaker 1: were Stuff to Blow your Mind on Tumbler. Follow us 896 00:52:04,400 --> 00:52:08,000 Speaker 1: there and wherever you listen to us. Give us some 897 00:52:08,000 --> 00:52:10,239 Speaker 1: some positive feedback there, give us a positive review of 898 00:52:10,280 --> 00:52:12,680 Speaker 1: the platform allows it. We're of course talking iTunes, We're 899 00:52:12,680 --> 00:52:17,880 Speaker 1: talking Stitcher, We're talking Spotify. UH. New platforms are constantly 900 00:52:18,000 --> 00:52:21,000 Speaker 1: rolling out and we're making an effort to be on 901 00:52:21,040 --> 00:52:23,360 Speaker 1: all of them. Yes, that is the easiest way for 902 00:52:23,360 --> 00:52:24,920 Speaker 1: you to help the show, And if you want to 903 00:52:24,960 --> 00:52:27,200 Speaker 1: get in touch with us with any feedback on this 904 00:52:27,239 --> 00:52:30,000 Speaker 1: episode or other recent episodes, you can email us at 905 00:52:30,040 --> 00:52:41,520 Speaker 1: blow the Mind at how stuff works dot com for 906 00:52:41,680 --> 00:52:43,960 Speaker 1: more on this and thousands of other topics. Is it 907 00:52:44,040 --> 00:52:53,719 Speaker 1: how stuff works dot com, bl bl bl bl B, 908 00:53:00,000 --> 00:53:02,520 Speaker 1: the TWA proper