History and Present State of Electricity

Joseph Priestley, History and Present State of Electricity, with Original Experiments (London Dodsley, 1767), and Emil Wilde, Geschichte der Optik von Ursprunge dieser Wissenschaft bis auf die gegenwartige Zeit, 2 vols (Berlin Rucker und Piichler, 18381843). 

Priestley continued experimenting, and soon he had written a manuscript titled The History and Present State of Electricity, with Original Experiments. In June of 1766 he was elected to the Royal Society, and his book on electricity was published in 1767. At this time, his experiments were primarily in physics. He had not yet developed the great interest in chemistry that was eventually to lead him to some very significant discoveries. 

Bazerman, C., How Natural Philosophers Can Cooperate The Literary Technology of Coordinated Investigation in Joseph Priestley s History and Present State of Electricity (1767) , in T. C. Kynell and M. G. Moran (eds), Phree Keys to the Past Phe History ofTechnologi-cal Communication (Contemporary Studies in Technological Communication Volume 7) (Stamford, CT Ablex Publishers, 1999), pp. 21-48. 

Priestley, Joseph (1767). The History and Present State of Electricity. London. 

I. The History and Present State of Electricity, with Original Experiments, 4 , London, 1767, 2 ed. enlarged, 4°, 1769 (ded. to James Earl of Morton, P.R.S.) in the Advertisement to the z ed. Priestley says he had learnt German, a language hardly known to English writers. 

Interestingly enough, for chemistry, one of the most thorough accounts of static electrical phenomena was that published by Joseph Priestley, The History and Present State of Electricity , London, 1767, in two volumes. It was an article in Encyclopaedia Britannica on the history of electricity by Tytler, copiously illustrated by diagrams of electrostatic machines, based in part on Priestley s volumes, that first stimulated Faraday to construct his first scientific instruments. 

At this time his interest in science deepened. During a visit to London an event occurred that became decisive in his life. He met Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) and was introduced to scientific society. Priestley was so inspired that he started to write The History and Present State of Electricity, which included original experiments and illustrations. This led to his election as a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1766. Priestley was 33 and his scientific career had begun. 

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