Electrical Enlightenment: Joseph Priestley's Historical and Experimental Studies of Electricity

Joseph Priestley (1733--1804) was one of the most controversial public figures of the eighteenth century. A true Enlightenment polymath, he wrote more than two hundred books, pamphlets, sermons, and essays on subjects ranging from science to politics and from metaphysics to theology. He was a religious dissenter, political radical, vocal supporter of the French Revolution, and lifelong defender of the losing side in the Chemical Revolution. Priestley is best known for having ``discovered'' oxygen in the 1770s and for his lasting contributions to pneumatic chemistry. Yet his first scientific fascination, while teaching at Warrington Academy, was electricity---one of the greatest scientific fads of the Enlightenment. Priestley's work on electricity, both historical and experimental, culminated in his \textit{History and Present State of Electricity }(1767), which became a standard textbook on the subject for nearly a century, and went through numerous editions and translations. Situating Priestley's electrical investigations against the background of eighteenth-century ideals of scientific theory and practice, especially concerning physics, experimental philosophy, and natural history, illuminates the relations between science, society, and epistemology in the Enlightenment.