By
Michael Brian Schiffer, Kacy L. Hollenback, Carrie L. Bell
"I began to envision a project on eighteenth-century electrical technology
sometime in 1992. In search of the earliest motors for my 1994 book
on electric automobiles, I came across a reference to Benjamin Franklin's
“electrical jack, ” an electrostatic motor. I tracked down the original source
and read it with rapt attention; I also did some desultory reading about
eighteenth-century electricity. At the time, this was no more than a pleas-
ant and brief diversion from electric automobiles. But one impression reg-
istered deeply: the eighteenth century was an electrical age, with fascinat-
ing technology that played many roles in diverse people's lives. Someday,
I promised myself, I would tell the story of this technology. But after I fin-
ished the car book in 1993, another project—developing an artifact-based
theory of human communication—consumed my attention for nearly five
years..."
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