Historical texts pertaining to early electrical experimentation

For your reference as you’re working on Homework 1.

• Dickinson, Leonard Perley. Easy electrical experiments and how to make them. Chicago: F. J. Drake & Co, 1918. https://archive.org/details/easyelectricalex00dick
  • p. 84 “How to Make an Electrophorus” describes how to manipulate static electricity, and the next project listed is a Leyden jar with with the charge could be built up repeatedly and stored
  • p. 117 how to build a voltmeter
• Bonney, G. E. Electrical experiments, a manual of instructive amusement. London: Whittaker & Co., 1897. https://archive.org/details/electricalexperi00bonnuoft
• Aldini, Giovanni. An account of the galvanic experiments performed by John Aldini on the body of a malefactor executed at Newgate Jan. 17, 1803. London: Wilks and Taylor, 1803. https://archive.org/details/b30794985
  • This is a very grisly description of experiments performed on the body of an executed criminal; there is no mention of the decedent’s consent. The “research” consists of dissection and electrical stimulation applied to various points on the body. Its scientific value is probably nil, but it’s useful as a historical document illustrating the sorts of uncontrolled experiments on humans which used to be perfectly permissible.
• Cumming, Linnæus. Electricity treated experimentally, for the use of schools and students. London: Rivingtons, 1887. https://archive.org/details/electricitytreat00cummrich
• Hawkins, Nehemiah. Hawkins Electrical Guide: Questions, Answers & Illustrations. Number one. New York: Theo. Audel & Co., 1914. https://archive.org/details/hawkinselectric00hawkgoog
  • Linked is book one; there are at least seven volumes which progress in their technical complexity, and which are also available at the Internet Archive. Great quote from the title page: “The thought is in the question. The information is in the answer.”
• Below Ten Meters: The Manual of Ultra-Short-Wave-Radio. ed. James Millen and Robert S. Kruse. Malden, Massachusetts: The National Company, 1932. https://archive.org/details/BelowTenMetersTheManualOfUltra-short-wave-radio
  • really nice color spreads of EMF and audible spectra on p. 4
  • they thought it made sense to use ultra-short-wave radio signals to paralyze a frog’s leg