Overview

To relate the history of electricity and magnetism during the eighteenth century is to give a good general outlook of how early modern physics matured from being a mostly qualitative topic of study to a demanding quantitative and mathematical science. Scientific instruments played a great deal in accomplishing this conceptual transformation, which is part of what the French call l'esprit géométrique des Lumières, or the quantifying spirit of the Enlightenment. Woven into this story is the emergence of a popular scientific culture and awareness that foregrounds the educational practices conducted today by our modern science centers.

Background

The most ancient reference pertaining to electricity that we know of comes from Antiquity. Thales of Miletus (c. 624-...