Frankenstein: Texts and Contexts

In a letter to a physician, Franklin describes the short-term effects of electricity upon palsied muscles.

On Franklin's work in electricity, and how his invention of the lightning rod captured the imagination of the French.

How French revolutionaries used the image of the lightning bolt to represent the will of the people. Also discusses how Franklin was seen as the symbol of political and scientific revolution.

Franklin's account of his famous experiment.

In support of Franklin's idea that electricity consisted of a single kind of fluid.

A searchable database of Franklin's writings, including his scientific works.

Galvani's influence on Frankenstein, with related materials,

A textbook on galvanic theory and electrical experiments.

On the uncertainty of what constituted life and death in the early 19th century, with information on Galvani's attempts to reanimate the dead through the use of electricity.

Galvani believed that biolectricity within the frog might cause the nerves to react, while Volta contended that dissimilar metals in the contacts created an electrical charge. Out of this argument came knowledge of bioelectricity and the electric pile, or battery.

Translated by Charles Henry Wilkinson, surgeon and author of 'The Effects of Electricity in Paralytic and Rheumatic Affection'... (1799).

On the use of electricity for the treatment of disease.

Provides details of experiments by early researchers.