Memorials: Scientific and Literary, of Andrew Crosse, the Electrician (Cambridge Library Collection - Physical Sciences)

These Memorials of Andrew Crosse (1784-1855), published by his wife after his death, include his experiments, and some of his poetry and prose. After graduating from Brasenose College, Oxford, in 1805 (described in this volume as 'a perfect hell on earth'), he returned to his family's manor house where he studied electricity, chemistry, and mineralogy, and installed a mile and a quarter of insulated copper wire in his grounds. A controversial figure, Crosse was thorough in his approach to his scientific work, if somewhat unusual in his practice. In 1836 he famously conducted a series of experiments on electro-crystallization in which he noted an appearance of life forms, named Acarus, seemingly created in the metallic solutions which should have been destructive to organic life. This book recounts these experiments, and the public sensation that they gave rise to by their apparent suggestion of life created by electricity.