The spiral conductor of Charles Grafton Page: Reconstructing experience with the body, more options, and ambiguity
Following discoveries of self-induction made by Faraday (1834) and Henry (1832/1835), Harvard medical student Charles Grafton Page took bodily shocks in 1836 from his homemade spiralled conductor while interrupting its battery connection. Unlike his famous predecessors, Page inserted connectors int...
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| Format: | Book chapter |
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National Museums Scotland
2023
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| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/152176 |
| _version_ | 1826196914007179264 |
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| author | Cavicchi, Elizabeth |
| author2 | Edgerton Center (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) |
| author_facet | Edgerton Center (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) Cavicchi, Elizabeth |
| author_sort | Cavicchi, Elizabeth |
| collection | MIT |
| description | Following discoveries of self-induction made by Faraday (1834) and Henry (1832/1835), Harvard medical student Charles Grafton Page took bodily shocks in 1836 from his homemade spiralled conductor while interrupting its battery connection. Unlike his famous predecessors, Page inserted connectors intermediate along the conductor which increased experimental options: shocks could be taken across any interval. Surprisingly, Page felt shocks everywhere, even where no direct battery current passed. Acupuncture needles amplified his sensitivity. Bodily contact across greater spiral spans yielded greater shocks. Having no interpretation for these effects, Page researched productively, later developing the instrument and its interpretations in a community. I reconstructed Page’s experiment with a spiralled copper foil, an oscilloscope as detector, resistor substitute for the body, flashlight batteries and switch. Across intervals where Page reported increased shock, I encountered variable signals. My methods evolved to include activating the spiral with periodic signals or my spur wheel switch, and picturing data by alterative views. These techniques functioned like Page’s connectors to open up options for further testing. Page and I experienced ambiguity in the experimental effects and in interpreting what happened. In both the original experiment and its reconstruction, productive means of working with ambiguity – not dispelling it—emerged through exploratory generation of new options for experimenting and thought. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T10:39:37Z |
| format | Book chapter |
| id | mit-1721.1/152176 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T10:39:37Z |
| publishDate | 2023 |
| publisher | National Museums Scotland |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1521762023-09-16T03:38:21Z The spiral conductor of Charles Grafton Page: Reconstructing experience with the body, more options, and ambiguity Cavicchi, Elizabeth Edgerton Center (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) Elizabeth Cavicchi Following discoveries of self-induction made by Faraday (1834) and Henry (1832/1835), Harvard medical student Charles Grafton Page took bodily shocks in 1836 from his homemade spiralled conductor while interrupting its battery connection. Unlike his famous predecessors, Page inserted connectors intermediate along the conductor which increased experimental options: shocks could be taken across any interval. Surprisingly, Page felt shocks everywhere, even where no direct battery current passed. Acupuncture needles amplified his sensitivity. Bodily contact across greater spiral spans yielded greater shocks. Having no interpretation for these effects, Page researched productively, later developing the instrument and its interpretations in a community. I reconstructed Page’s experiment with a spiralled copper foil, an oscilloscope as detector, resistor substitute for the body, flashlight batteries and switch. Across intervals where Page reported increased shock, I encountered variable signals. My methods evolved to include activating the spiral with periodic signals or my spur wheel switch, and picturing data by alterative views. These techniques functioned like Page’s connectors to open up options for further testing. Page and I experienced ambiguity in the experimental effects and in interpreting what happened. In both the original experiment and its reconstruction, productive means of working with ambiguity – not dispelling it—emerged through exploratory generation of new options for experimenting and thought. 2023-09-15T17:31:09Z 2023-09-15T17:31:09Z 2011 Book chapter http://purl.org/eprint/type/BookItem 9781905267484 https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/152176 Cavicchi, Elizabeth. “The spiral conductor of Charles Grafton Page: Reconstructing experience with the body, more options, and ambiguity,” in K. Staubermann (Ed.), Reconstructions: Recreating Science and Technology of the Past (pp. 127-170). Edinburgh, UK: National Museums Scotland, 2011. Reconstructions: Recreating Science and Technology of the Past Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ application/pdf National Museums Scotland Elizabeth Cavicchi |
| spellingShingle | Cavicchi, Elizabeth The spiral conductor of Charles Grafton Page: Reconstructing experience with the body, more options, and ambiguity |
| title | The spiral conductor of Charles Grafton Page: Reconstructing experience with the body, more options, and ambiguity |
| title_full | The spiral conductor of Charles Grafton Page: Reconstructing experience with the body, more options, and ambiguity |
| title_fullStr | The spiral conductor of Charles Grafton Page: Reconstructing experience with the body, more options, and ambiguity |
| title_full_unstemmed | The spiral conductor of Charles Grafton Page: Reconstructing experience with the body, more options, and ambiguity |
| title_short | The spiral conductor of Charles Grafton Page: Reconstructing experience with the body, more options, and ambiguity |
| title_sort | spiral conductor of charles grafton page reconstructing experience with the body more options and ambiguity |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/152176 |
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