Entertainment for Angels, Electricity in the Enlightenment

Electricity was the scientific fashion of the Enlightenment, 'an Entertainment for Angels, rather than for Men'. Lecturers attracted huge audiences to marvel at sparkling fountains, flaming drinks, pirouetting dancers and electrified boys. Enlightenment optimists predicted that this new-found power of nature would cure illnesses, improve crop production, even bring the dead back to life.Benjamin Franklin, better known as one of America's founding fathers, played a key role in developing the new instruments... Zobrazit více