Dark Light: Electricity and Anxiety from the Telegraph to the X-Ray

In 1879 Americans were fearful of the 'new electricity': forty years later, the whole country relied on it. How did Americans come to change their minds? Dark Light: Electricity And Anxiety From The Telegraph To The X-ray explains the evolution of electrical acceptance in this country, providing a lively, popular discussion.

This is a history of electricity from the social aspects. The author is neither scientist nor historian, but an English professor. When I first picked up the book I was puzzled by the sub-title, why would anyone have any anxiety about something as commonplace as electricity. The answer, of course, is that in those days it wasn't commonplace at all. Experiments had shown that electricity was the basic force that made life work. Working with something so close to the basic life force had to be something that you approached very carefully. All in all, this book reminded me of the anxiety that is today being caused by things like stem cell research which like electricity works with the basic fundamentals of life. In the future, will we look back on stem cell research as we now do the concerns about electricity?

Dark Light is a surprising book. Although not a professor of history, Linda Simon is associate professor of English at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, New York, and it shows. The book is well researched and very informative, but more importantly, it's very readable. I have to admit it took me a while to figure where we were going in the enterprise. At first the book seems like a biography of Edison. This would hardly be surprising given the subtitle of the book: Electricity and Anxiety from the Telegraph to the Xray. Edison is almost Mr. Electronics himself. The Wizard of Menlo Park, as he was known at the time, was responsible for major improvements in telegraphy, electric lighting, and phonographic sound, among other things. The author's jump to Beard, one of Edison's brief partners, lost me a little. This was mostly because I had never heard of the fellow. Reading on in Simon's book, however, was very enlightening. Apparently Beard had been instrumental in expanding US medical practice into the emotional sphere. Rather less famous than the European experiment with it in Freud's work, Beard never the less brought the effects of stress in modern life into public focus with his articles and his own work in physiological cures with the use of electricity. I had no idea the extensive use to which 19th century medicine had put what it referred to as "electrotherapy" in treating anxiety and depression. Most of us know about electroshock therapy in this context, but Beard worked with electric "baths." Simon's discussion of the man's financial interests in this therapy make it sound like the man practiced nothing less than charlatanry, but as many workers in the health care profession know, part of the treatment of any condition involves the patient's own belief in its effectiveness. Furthermore, recent treatments for depression and anxiety have in fact turned to electroshock by "pacemaker" type electrodes placed into selected nerves. Even obesity might one day be treated in this fashion. Makes Beard seem positively psychic. Speaking of which, the book also delves into the public interest in spiritualism at the time. The subject is never without its proponents in any age, but apparently the 19th century was particularly concerned with the topic. Simon notices the connection between the loss of so many family members by much of society during the Civil War and the introduction of new technologies based on unseen "forces" and "fields." Placing the two in juxtaposition certainly makes the interest seem much more rational than it might. It also explains why figures famous for their scientific contributions or for their scientific training might become involved in the movement in some way. Alfred Russell Wallace, the naturalist who with Darwin was co-discoverer of the theory of evolution, was one such as was Arthur Conan Doyle, the author of Sherlock Holmes, who was trained in medicine. Elisha Kent Kane, an arctic explorer

Today we worry about stem cell research, and cloning, and viruses that shut down computers. They are technological and scientific problems that we are trying to grope our way around because we have never had to face them before. We all take electricity for granted now, but a hundred years ago, electricity and the electrification of businesses and homes were scary new worlds. In _Dark Light: Electricity and Anxiety from the Telegraph to the X-ray_ (Harcourt), Linda Simon has written a social history of the early days of electricity. Simon points out that we now use electrical metaphors to describe ourselves: we are shocked, or wired, and we plug into new ideas, perhaps ideas from the latest "human dynamo." This level of familiarity was hard in coming. There was a time when "electricity was a force stronger in the imagination than in reality" and the imagination brought forth worries. There were rosy speculations, of course, about electric lights that had no flame to catch curtains ablaze, and electric sewing machines and carpet cleaners. "Electric light is safe," went one advertisement, because the public had to be convinced. They knew about accidental electrocutions (even of technicians who were supposed to know about electricity) and explosions from sparks near gas mains which made headlines. People were reluctant to invite the force of lightning into their homes. Simon has provided an entertaining, desultory explanation of the mostly negative public view of electricity in the last half of the nineteenth century. Thirty years after Edison invented a successful lightbulb, only ten percent of American homes were wired. Edison could not conquer the public fear that "nature would extract retribution for harnessing its power." Oddly enough, though there was fear about household electricity, the healing force of electricity was quickly accepted. Electrotherapy seemed a better alternative than the nostrums or diets that doctors might prescribe. Thus physicians (and quacks) began manufacturing and recommending electric baths and teething rings and brushes, electrified corsets, and electrical probes for any body cavity to dispense the charge right where it was needed. The scientists often did not help their own cause. The famous disagreement between Edison and his former employee Nikola Tesla (and George Westinghouse, with whom Tesla came to work) over what kind of current would be safest could only fuel suspicion that if experts disagreed, there was no reason to accept the new technology as safe. The alarmists on both sides of the direct versus alternating current debate predicted terrible disasters if the other side had its way. (A physician at the time wisely said the arguments against electrification were the equivalents of those against illuminating gas or railroad trains a century before.) Edison cheerfully lent space and equipment for experiments on electrocuting animals by the alternating currents he opposed, and then practic

Dark Light is a great intro to a subject that we all take for granted, but whose scientific and cultural origins are a mystery to most of us, including me before I read the book. If you want to discover how the western world looked at the new scientific and commercial force of electricity, this book is perfect! From the early days of SB Morse and the telegraph,(artist turned inventor and promoter), to some weird "New Age" (for the time) ideas about electricity and health, the incredible carrers of Edison, Tesla (the overlooked genius), among many others, this book scores a bull's eye. Plus a nice trip into the 1892 Chicago Columbian exhibition, through the controversial electric chair, and into the x-ray, plus a lot more. There is not too much about how the nation was wired up, and how the utility companies were formed, but this may be the author's next project!