The Business of Experimental Physics: Instrument Makers and Itinerant Lecturers in the German Enlightenment

Abstract

While it is a commonplace in the historiography of electricity that itinerant lecturers and instrument makers were ‘somehow’ part of the ‘electrical flare’ of the 18th century, very little is actually known about them, about their background, their careers and their self-understanding. Yet, research focusing on these practitioners of experimental physics outside the established institutions can contribute immensely to our understanding of the scientific culture of the Enlightenment. The development of electrical machines, the supply for increasing demand for instruments and instruction, the creation of interest in electricity through public demonstrations, relied heavily on these men. Furthermore, these ‘scientific salesmen’ offered a perfect contrast, a foil for the natural philosophers from whom to distinguish themselves. Natural philosophers tried to discredit their extra-academic competitors, thereby forging their own image as serious, honest, truth-seeking, independent researchers. This essay focuses on this situation in the German Empire, tracing the steps of the itinerant lecturer Jakob von Bianchy on his way from court to college, from the workshop to the theatre, from Lake Como, to Vienna and Paris.