Luigi Galvani, “De Viribus Electricitatis In Motu Musculari Commentarius”, 1791.

INTRODUCTION.

Harrison Horblit, “One-Hundred (100) Books Famous in Science”, 1964 listed Luigi Galvani, “De Viribus Electricitatis In Motu Musculari Commentarius”, 1791 as one of its books.

Luigi Galvani (1737-1798) was an Italian physicist & physician who investigated the nature and effects of what he conceived to be electricity in animal tissue. His discoveries led to the invention of the bimetallic arc (a kind of voltaic-pile battery that makes possible a constant source of electricity. The illustration ABOVE embodies the Galvani observation of frogleg movement using zinc (Zn) & copper (Cu) as the “bimetallic arc” wire.

 

COMMENTS.

Peter Nicholls, “The Science in Science Fiction”, 1982 was the topic of an earlier blog post.  

Mary Shelley, “Frankenstein”, 1818 is considered the first SciFi novel because of “bio-electricity”.  Doctor Victor Frankenstein, MD gives life to a “creature” with an “electric current” from a “bimetallic” voltaic-pile.  

As Peter Nicholls, “The Science in Science Fiction”, 1982 stated: “SciFi must have science in it”.  Mary Shelley, “Frankenstein”, 1818 the created the SciFi genre, from  the Horror  genre of the period with the science of electricity.  

The “electrodes” image  on the head of the Mary  Shelley, “creature” are today part of “popular culture”.  The science in this SciFi novel  is electricity, and the plot and protagonist versus antagonist dynamic is based on  electric science.