The electrical flare of the 1740´s

FROM TIME IMMEMORIAL man must have been conscious of gentle mysterious attractions which accompanied the rubbing of certain surfaces. Then, in a single decade of the 1700´s, there was awakened from its long sleep what proved to be a giant bent on dealing startling shocks and bolts of fire. This awakening was part of the most dramatic and portentous wave of advance in the entire annals of electricity, to be matched in public participation only by the fireworks attending modern radio, electronics, and atomic fission.