Pfannkuchen, Antje (Author)
German scholar Georg Christoph Lichtenberg found in the 1770s dust formations on his electrophorus, a new device for electrical experiments. These Lichtenberg Figures became famous as earliest visualizations of electricity. Their beauty captivated popular audiences, but they simultaneously aided the transformation of electricity from a scientific curiosity into a technology that would dominate the nineteenth century. This paper contrasts Lichtenberg’s observations of surfaces in arts and sciences with Johann Caspar Lavater’s practice of studying profiles in his new physiognomical “science” of which Lichtenberg was very critical. Lichtenberg’s discovery became possible by a careful distinction of artistic and scientific observation (one that Lavater fundamentally ignored), and an approach to the latter with a new eye for what would be called “scientific objectivity.” As a result, Lichtenberg’s practice and findings formed a matrix for emerging sciences and technologies in the early nineteenth century.
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Chapter
Craig, Charlotte M.;
(1995)
A rigid issue: Lichtenberg versus Lavater
(/isis/citation/CBB000065348/)
Thesis
Pfannkuchen, Antje;
(2010)
When Nature Begins to Write Herself---German Romantics Read the Electrophore
(/isis/citation/CBB001567229/)
Article
Ohage, August;
(1990)
Lichtenberg als Beiträger zu Lavaters Physiognomischen Fragmenten
(/isis/citation/CBB000064497/)
Book
Lavater, Johann Caspar;
Lichtenberg, Georg Christoph;
(1991)
Lo specchio dell'anima: Pro e contro la fisiognomica: Un dibattito settecentesco. A cura di Gurisatti, Giovanni
(/isis/citation/CBB000030619/)
Article
Craig, Charlotte M.;
(1989)
A matter of perception and principle: Lichtenberg's physiognomic encounters and their documentation
(/isis/citation/CBB000030552/)
Book
Ritter, Johann Wilhelm;
Holland, Jocelyn;
(2010)
Key Texts of Johann Wilhelm Ritter (1776--1810) on the Science and Art of Nature
(/isis/citation/CBB001020710/)
Article
Hochadel, Oliver;
(1998)
“Martinus Electrophorus Berschütz”: Georg Christoph Lichtenberg und die wissenschaftlichen Schausteller seiner Zeit
(/isis/citation/CBB000081889/)
Article
Lyon, John B.;
(2007)
“The Science of Sciences”: Replication and Reproduction in Lavater's Physiognomics
(/isis/citation/CBB001030339/)
Article
Wiesenfeldt, Gerhard;
Breidbach, Olaf;
(2012)
“Könnte nicht also auch die Erdkugel ein großer Turmalin sein?”: Ein Kristall, Lichtenberg und die Polaritätsdiskussion vor 1800
(/isis/citation/CBB001211309/)
Book
Gray, Richard T.;
(2004)
About Face: German Physiognomic Thought from Lavater to Auschwitz
(/isis/citation/CBB000470730/)
Book
Haru Hamanaka;
(2015)
Erkenntnis und Bild. Wissenschaftsgeschichte der Lichtenbergischen Figuren um 1800
(/isis/citation/CBB112435881/)
Thesis
Plews, John Lee;
(2001)
The specter of the face: Reading physiognomy, power, and the artist-figure in modern German-language prose works: Lavater, Chamisso, Moerike, Stifter, Th. Mann
(/isis/citation/CBB001562534/)
Article
Isobel Falconer;
(2017)
No Actual Measurement … Was Required: Maxwell and Cavendish's Null Method for the Inverse Square Law of Electrostatics
(/isis/citation/CBB669032258/)
Book
Bevilacqua, Fabio;
Fregonese, Lucio;
(2000)
Nuova Voltiana: Studies on Volta and His Times
(/isis/citation/CBB000600691/)
Thesis
Fisher, Amy Alice;
(2010)
An Arc Across Fields of Study: Electricity in Physics and Chemistry (1751--1807)
(/isis/citation/CBB001562739/)
Chapter
Mantovani, Roberto;
(2001)
Antique Scientific Instruments at the University of Urbino. A “Case Study”: Arthur Auguste de la Rive's Electric Egg
(/isis/citation/CBB000470188/)
Article
Butcher. Peter;
(2018)
"Todesstrahlen" - Fakt oder Fiktion? ("Death rays" - fact or fiction?)
(/isis/citation/CBB554527175/)
Article
Cibelle Celestino Silva;
Peter Heering;
(2018)
Re-examining the Early History of the Leiden Jar: Stabilization and Variation in Transforming a Phenomenon into a Fact
(/isis/citation/CBB231128053/)
Article
Suay, Juan Miguel;
Teira, David;
(2014)
Kites
(/isis/citation/CBB001551904/)
Article
Hackmann, Willem;
(2007)
The Iconography of Early Electricity
(/isis/citation/CBB000831665/)
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