Heering, Peter, Oliver Hochadel, and David J. Rhees. eds. Playing with Fire: Histories of the Lightning Rod. Vol. 99. Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 2009. [Boatwright Circulating Books TH 9061 .P58 2009]
I couldn’t resist grabbing this intriguing volume of essays off the New Books shelf last year, and the deeper I delved into it the happier I was that I had grabbed it. Published by the American Philosophical Society (founded by Benjamin Franklin before he invented the lightning rod), this collection of scholarly essays is the outgrowth of a 2002 conference on the history of the lightning rod. As hard as it may be for us ‘moderns’ to believe, the widespread use of the lightning rod was resisted for many years, and not until atmospheric and meteorological science developed more fully were rods used extensively. This book details the social, political and scientific reasons for the adoption of the technology in a series of 13 essays written by an international cast of scholars.
This collection’s amazing breadth (in a work of less than 300 pages) means it is a must-read for anyone interested in what we would call “Preparedness”. Simon Schaffer, of Cambridge University, sums it up this way:
“The contributors explore the shifts in design, experiment and theory to which work on atmospheric electricity, telegraphy, and power generation was subjected. They explore major themes that remain of pressing contemporary interest: the conflicted character of scientific expertise; the management of risk and environmental threats; the relation between the public and specialist authorities; and the use of technology to manage a changing and often dangerous world.”
A quick glance at some of the essay titles supports this assessment: “Public Opinion, Local Authorities and the Reformation of Meteorology in Eighteenth Century Italy”; “Lightning Rods and the Commodification of Risk in Nineteenth Century America”; “A Modern Assessment of Benjamin Franklin’s Lightning Rods” (in which the author finds that rods which are rounded on their tips protect better than Franklin’s beloved pointed rods). Extensive notes follow each essay and a detailed and well-designed index at the end of the book increase its usefulness to the scholar and researcher. All in all, highly recommended.