Between teaching and research: Adolphe Ganot and the definition of electrostatics (1851–1881)

Adolphe Ganotʹs Traité was a canonical physics textbook in 19th-century Europe. In this period, static electricity was largely based on research conducted during the eighteenth century. However, the discussion on the theories of electricity had an important role in the configuration of physics as a discipline through the replacement of imponderable fluids by other frameworks such as the conservation of energy. In spite of this process of unification, the practices defining nineteenth-century electrostatics were not uniform. In this paper we intend to provide a big picture of nineteenth-century electrostatics and to launch a fruitful dialogue between historians and scientists.