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Volta: Science And Culture In The Age Of Enlightenment
Giuliano Pancaldi sets us within the cosmopolitan cultures of Enlightenment Europe to tell the story of Alessandro Volta--the brilliant man whose name is forever attached to electromotive force. Providing fascinating details, many previously unknown, Pancaldi depicts Volta as an inventor who used his international network of acquaintances to further his quest to harness th...more
Hardcover, 400 pages
Published
by Princeton University Press
(first published April 11th 2005)
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This book is pretty much what it says on the cover, a biography of Alessandro Volta, inventor of the battery, as well as an exploration of the Enlightment through his life and times. A great book for anyone interested in early batteries, or Italian natural philosophers, but Volta was in many way a peripheral figure in the Enlightenment. Some interesting theory about the use of science in diplomacy, to project power and prestige, but there are probably more fun sources elsewhere.
A pretty good mix of biography and social history. The most interesting aspect of Volta's life to me was whether he was going to be accepted as a natural philosopher by the more respected minds of his day, or whether he was "only" going to be perceived as an inventor. I hadn't realized that experimenting and theorizing about electricity enough to invent the electrophorus AND the battery(!) would not qualify someone as a natural philosopher automatically. Guess Volta was playing to a to...more
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