The real science behind Frankenstein

From Dateline Zero – This is a fascinating article on the world of modern science during the time that Frankenstein was being written. Check this out, from Physorg: “Halloween Special: The science behind Frankenstein,” by Alan S. Brown. (Full article available online at the link.)

The science that inspired Mary Shelley to write “Frankenstein” is nearly as strange as the novel itself. Written in 1818, the book was influenced by a scientific feud that ushered in the first battery and our modern understanding of electricity.

The story begins in the mid-18th century. Electricity had captured the imaginations of many of Europe’s top scientists, and at that time very little was understood about the nature of electricity. Scientists could generate static electricity using spinning machines, but it was not until Benjamin Franklin’s famous kite experiment in 1752 that they proved that lightning was of the same essence.

At the University of Bologna in Italy, noted surgeon Luigi Galvani was investigating the effects of electricity on animals. It was not an unusual line of inquiry.

Researchers knew electrical shocks produced violent spasms and speculated that electricity might cause muscular contractions.

On January 26, 1781, while dissecting a frog near a static electricity machine, Galvani’s assistant touched a scalpel to a nerve in its leg, and the frog’s leg jumped. Galvani repeated this and several other experiments, observing the same violent muscle spasms. He also noticed that frog legs occasionally twitched when they were hung from a brass hook and allowed to touch an iron trellis, so Galvani joined a length of each metal together to form a brass and iron arc that made the leg muscles contract when touched.

But where did the electricity come from?

Galvani, who called it “animal electricity,” believed it resided in the frog itself. He thought that the bimetallic arc merely conducted the electricity from one part of the frog to the nerve, causing the leg to jump. He published his findings in 1791 and, as the story goes, came to be known as the frog dancing master.

One of Galvin’s earliest readers was Italian physicist Alessandro Volta. Volta already had earned an imposing reputation as the discoverer of electrical capacitance, potential, and charge, and also discovered and was the first to isolate methane gas. He replicated Galvani’s experiments and helped popularize his work.
Yet Volta reached very different conclusions. He believed the electricity came from the two metals used in the arc, and that the frog was acting as the conductor. Within the year, he replaced the frog’s leg with brine-soaked paper, detected a current, and challenged Galvani.

The scientific world divided into two camps, animal electricity versus dissimilar metals. The feud became bitter. At one point, Volta wrote to a friend that his opponents wanted him dead. “I’ll be damned if I’ll oblige them,” he added.

Knowing the historical scientific setting that surrounds the story makes it more interesting for sure. For those who want to know more about this time a book titled “Raising the Dead: the men who created Frankenstein.” There’s a review of the book from the Telegraph HERE.

Gizmodo also has an article titled “How a Real-Life Dr. Frankenstein Reanimated The Dead With Electricity.”

Regarding the legacy of Luigi Galvani, an article at Wikipedia says:

• Galvani’s report of his investigations were mentioned specifically by Mary Shelley as part of the summer reading list leading up to an ad hoc ghost story contest on a rainy day in Italy — and the resultant novel Frankenstein — and its reanimated construct. However, there is no direct mention of electrical reanimation in Frankenstein.
• Galvani’s name also survives in the Galvanic cell, Galvani potential, galvanic corrosion, the galvanometer and galvanization.
• The crater Galvani on the Moon is named after him.

And Alessandro Volta:

Volta’s legacy is celebrated by a Temple located in the public gardens by the lake. It is also a museum which has been built in his honor and exhibits some of the original equipment he used to conduct experiments; not far away stands the Villa Olmo, which houses the Voltian Foundation, an organization promoting scientific activities. Volta carried out his experimental studies and made his first inventions in Como. 

From Dateline Zero.