¹ I am grateful to Simon Schaffer for numerous insightful suggestions. I also want to thank the anonymous referee for helpful comments.

² For detailed studies of the concept and its role in eighteenth-century electrical research see Priestley, J., The History and Present State of Electricity, with Original Experiments, 1st edn, 2 vols, London, 1775, i, especially pp. 19–86Google Scholar; Roller, D. and Roller, D.H.D., ‘The development of the concept of Electric Charge’, (ed. by Conant, J.B.) Harvard Case Histories in Experimental Science, Cambridge, Mass, 1954, pp. 29–48.Google Scholar; Heilbron, J.L., Electricity in the 17th and 18th Centuries: A Study of early Modern Physics, Berkeley, 1979, pp. 234–249.Google Scholar; Home, R.W., The Effluvial Theory of Electricity, New York, 1981, pp. 41–77.Google Scholar

³ Priestley, , op. cit. (2), i, p. xiv (my emphasis).Google Scholar

⁴ See Heilbron, J., ‘Experimental Natural Philosophy’, in Rousseau, G.S. and Porter, R. (eds), The Ferment of Knowledge: Studies in the Historiography of Eighteenth-Century science, Cambridge, 1980, pp. 357–387CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Both Home, op. cit. (2), pp. 250–254Google Scholar and Heilbron argue that the Leyden Jar was a crucial invention for the transformation of electrical research. Conceptually, the ‘Leyden experiment’, peformed for the first time by Musschenbroek in 1745, was based on the conductivity and discharge of water. Yet these conceptual tools were initially suggested by Gray and Bose, the latter following the former, during the second half of the 1730s. The transformation of electrical research is also discussed by Hackmann, W.D., ‘The relationship Between Concept and Instrument Design in Eighteenth Century Experimental Science’, Annals of Science, (1979), 36, pp. 205–224.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

⁵ Heathcote, N.H. de W., ‘The Early Meaning of Electricity; Some Pseudodoxia Epidemica’, Annals of Science, (1967), 23, p. 264.Google Scholar

⁶ Hackmann, W.D., Electricity from Glass: The History of the Frictional Electrical Machine 1600–1850. Alpen aan den Rijn, 1978. p. 4.Google Scholar

⁷ Cohen, I.B., Franklin and Newton, Philadelphia, 1956, p. 296.Google Scholar

⁸ See Home, , op. cit. (2), p. 42, pp. 46–47Google Scholar; Heilbron, , op. cit. (2), p. 247 and op. cit. (4), p. 370.Google Scholar

⁹ Heilbron, , op. cit. (2), p. 249Google Scholar; Home, , op. cit. (2) p. 44.Google Scholar See also Home, R., ‘Francis Hauksbee's Theory of Electricity’, Archive for History of Exact Sciences, (1967–1968), 4, p. 216.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

¹⁰ Locke, J., An Essay concerning Human Understanding, (ed. Niddich, P.H.), Oxford, 1975, p. 46.Google Scholar

¹¹ Gilbert, W., De Magnete, (trs Mottelay, P.F.), New York, 1958, p. 77.Google Scholar

¹² Ibid., p. 82.

¹³ Boyle, R., Experiments and Notes about the Mechanical Origins or Production of Electricity, London, 1675, pp. 1–2.Google Scholar

¹⁴ See Freudenthal, G., ‘Early Electricity Between Chemistry and Physics: The Simultaneous Itineraries of Francis Hauksbee, Samuel Wall and Pierre Polinière’, Historical Studies in the Physical Sciences, (1981), 9, pp. 203–229CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Corson, D.W., ‘Pierre Polinière, Francis Hauksbee, and Electroluminescence: A case of Simultaneous Discovery’, Isis, (1968), 58, pp. 402–413.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

¹⁵ See Espinasse, M., ‘The Decline and Fall of restoration science’, Past and Present, (1958), 14, pp. 71–89CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Hunter, M., ‘A college' for the Royal Society: the Abortive Plan’ Notes and Records of the Royal Society, (1983–1984), 32, pp. 159–186Google Scholar; ‘Early Problems in Professionalizing Scientific Research: Nehemiah Grew (1641–1712) and the Royal Society, with an Unpublished Letter to Henry Oldenburg Notes and Records of the Royal Society, (1981–2), 36, pp. 188–209; M. Hunter and P.B. Wood, ‘Towards Solomon's House: Rival Strategies for Reforming the Early Royal Society’, History of Science (1986), 24, pp. 49–108.Google Scholar

¹⁶ On the Royal Society under Newton's presidency see Manuel, F.E., ‘Newton as an Autocrat of Science’, Daedalus, (1968), 97.2, pp. 969–1001Google Scholar; Westfall, R.S., Never at Rest A Biography of Isaac Newton, Cambridge, 1980Google Scholar, chapter XIII; Heilbron, J.L., Physics at the Royal Society during Newton's Presidency, Los Angeles, 1983.Google Scholar

¹⁷ His research on the electricity of glass was simultaneous with his elaboration of optical experiments with glass prisms. See Turnbull, H.W. (ed.), The Correspondence of Isaac Newton, 6 vols, Cambridge, 1958, i, pp. 392–393Google Scholar (dated 14 December 1675), pp. 404–406 (dated 21 December 1675), pp. 407–411 (dated 10 January 1676). On the variation of his formulations of the physical signifiance of electricity in his system see, Hall, M. Boas and Hall, A.R., ‘Newton's Electric Spirit: Four Oddities’, Isis, (1959), 50, pp. 473–476CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Koyré, A. and Cohen, I.E., ‘Newton's Electric and Elastic Spirit’, Isis, (1960) 51, p. 377Google Scholar; Hawes, J.L., ‘Newton and the Electrical Attraction Unexcited’, Annals of Science, (1968), 24, pp. 121–130CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and his ‘Newton's Two Electricities’, Annals of Science, (1971), 27, pp. 95–101Google Scholar; Guerlac, H., ‘Sir Isaac and the Ingenious Mr. Hauksbee’, in Cohen, I.E. and Taton, R. (eds), Mélanges Alexandre Koyré, 2 vols, Paris, 1964, i, pp. 228–253Google Scholar; Home, R.W., ‘Force, electricity, and the powers of living matter in Newton's mature philosophy of nature’, in Osler, M.J. and Farber, P.L., Religion, Science, and Worldview, Essays in honor of Richards. Westfall, Cambridge, 1985, pp. 95–117.Google Scholar

¹⁸ Boyle, , op. cit. (13), p. 6Google Scholar; Boyle, R., A Discovery of the Perviousness of Glass to Ponderable Parts of Flame, London, 1673Google Scholar; Of the Great efficacy of Effluviums, London, 1673.Google Scholar

¹⁹ For Hauksbee's experiments with glass see See Hauksbee, F., ‘An account of an Experiment … touching the Production of a Considerable Light….’, Philosophical Transactions, (1706), 25, pp. 2277–2282CrossRefGoogle Scholar; ‘An Account of an Experiment … touching the Extraordinary Elistricity [sic] of Glass …’, Philosophical Transactions, (1706), 25, pp. 2327–2335Google Scholar; ‘Several Experiments showing the strange Effects of the Effluvia of Glass’, Philosophical Transactions, (1707), 25, pp. 2372–77.Google Scholar For Hauksbee's first publication on the triboelectric generator see, ‘Several Experiments on Attrition of Bodies in Vacuo’, Philosophical Transactions, (1705), 24, pp. 2165–2175.Google Scholar

²⁰ Boyle, , Of the Great Efficacy of Effluviums, op. cit. (18), p. 18.Google Scholar

²¹ Hauksbee, F., Physico-Mechanical Experiments on Various Subjects, 2nd edn, London, 1719, pp. 57–58, 80–81, 139–142.Google Scholar

²² On the ‘virtuoso’ culture and the Royal Society see Houghton, W.E., ‘The English Virtuoso in the Seventeenth Century’, Journal for the Ministry of Ideas, (1942), 3, pp. 51–73, 190–219CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Hunter, M., Science and Society in Restoration England, Cambridge, 1981Google Scholar, especially pp. 32–86; The Royal Society and its Fellows 1660–1700: the Morphology of an Early Scientific Institution, BSHS Monographs iv, 1982.Google Scholar

²³ The biographical notes concerning Gray are based on Clark, D.H. and Murdin, L., ‘The Enigma of Stephen Gray Astronomer and Scientist (1666–1736)’, Vistas in Astronomy, (1979), 23, pp. 351–404CrossRefGoogle Scholar, which is the most detailed investigation of his life and career. More limited biographical reports are provided in Cohen, I.B., ‘Neglected Sources for the Life of Stephen Gray’, Isis, (1954), 45, pp. 41–50CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Chipman, R.A., ‘The Manuscript Letters of Stephen Gray, F.R.S. (1666/7–1736)’, Isis, (1958), 49, pp. 414–429.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

²⁴ The Spectator, 06 21, 1712, 411.Google Scholar

²⁵ On the history and organization of naturalists in England in this period see Allen, D.E., The Naturalist in Britain: a Social History. London, 1976, especially pp. 5–51.Google Scholar

²⁶ See Chipman, R.A., ‘An Unpublished Letter of Stephen Gray on Electrical Experiments, 1707–1708’, Isis, (1954), 45, pp. 33–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

²⁷ Ibid., p. 34.

²⁸ Ibid., p. 36.

²⁹ Ibid., p. 36 (my emphasis).

³⁰ See Heilbron, op. cit. (2), pp. 234–236Google Scholar; Journal Book, the Royal Society, 10, under 7 Jan. 1707–1708.Google Scholar

³¹ Chipman, , op. cit. (23), p. 36.Google Scholar

³² Chipman, , op. cit. (26), p. 39Google Scholar; Heilbron, , op. cit. (2), p. 235.Google Scholar

³³ See Cohen, , op. cit. (23), p. 42.Google Scholar

³⁴ See Clark, and Murdin, , op. cit. (23), p. 388.Google Scholar

³⁵ For Desaguliers' role in London's polite society see Rowbottom, M.E., ‘John Theophilus Desaguliers (1683–1744)’, Huguenot Society Proceedings, (1965–1970), 21, pp. 196–218Google Scholar; Stewart, L., ‘Public Lectures and Private Patronage in Newtonian England’, Isis, (1986), 77, pp. 47–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

³⁶ Clark, and Murdin, , op. cit. (23), p. 389Google Scholar; Cohen, , op. cit. (23), p. 45Google Scholar; Journal Book, The Royal Society, 11, under the following dates: 7 02 1716–1717Google Scholar, 28 March 1717, 20 and 28 February 1717–8, 13 March 1717–8, 14 March 1719.

³⁷ The terms of acknowledgement, for reasons which are clarified in the following, were rather odd: in the second volume of Desaguliers, ' A Course of Experimental Philosophy, 1st edn, London, 1744, p. 335Google Scholar, Desaguliers acknowledged that the electrical experiments presented in the first section of his first volume, published in 1734 when Gray was still alive, were the result of his collaboration with Gray.

³⁸ Desaguliers, , A Course of Experimental Philosophy, 1st edn, 2 vols, London, 1734, i, pp. 18–19, exp. no. 13.Google Scholar

³⁹ Desaguliers, J.T., Physico-Mechanical Lectures, or, an Account of what is Explain'd and Demonstrated in the Course of Mechanical and Experimental Philosophy, London, 1717, pp. 1–2.Google Scholar

⁴⁰ Philosophical Transactions, (1739–1740), 41, p. 187.Google Scholar

⁴¹ See Boswell, J., Boswell's Life of Johnson, (ed. Hill, G.B., revised and enlarged by L.F. Powell), 6 vols, Oxford, 1964–1971, i, pp. 19, 232; ii, 26.Google Scholar

⁴² Gray, S., ‘An Account of some new Electrical Experiments’, Philosophical Transactions, (1720), 31, pp. 140–148.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

⁴³ Pope, A., ‘An Essay on Man’, in Poetical Works, (ed. Davis, H.), London, 1966, p. 249.Google Scholar

⁴⁴ Hauksbee, , op. cit. (21), pp. 141–2.Google Scholar

⁴⁵ This audience and its interests comprised a complex social phenomenon and included the politics of Restoration England and the Revolution, with which Gray did not seem to associate himself. See Jacob, M.C., The Newtonians and the English Revolution, 1689–1720, Ithaca, 1976Google Scholar: Shapin, S., ‘Of Gods and Kings: Natural Philosophy and Politics in the Leibniz-Clarke Disputes’, Isis, (1981), 72, pp. 187–215.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

⁴⁶ Journal Book, The Royal Society, (1728), 13, pp. 330.Google Scholar

⁴⁷ Council Minutes, The Royal Society, 3, 11 15, 1731.Google Scholar

⁴⁸ On his reception of Gray's work see Dufay, C., ‘A letter from Mons. Du Fay … concerning Electricity’, Philosophical Transactions, (1733–1734), 38, pp. 258–66.Google Scholar

⁴⁹ See Heilbron, , op. cit. (2), pp. 263–269.Google Scholar

⁵⁰ Priestley, , op. cit. (2), p. 32Google Scholar; Home, , op. cit. (2), p. 42Google Scholar; Roller, , op. cit. (2), p. 29Google Scholar; Heilbron, , op. cit. (2), p. 245.Google Scholar

⁵¹ Kuhn, T., The Structure of Scientific Revolution, Chigago, 1970, pp. 61–62Google Scholar; Bachelard, G., Le rationalisme appliqué, Paris, 1949, pp. 105–109Google Scholar; Heilbron, J., op. cit. (4).Google Scholar For a critical examination of their views see Schaffer, , ‘Natural philosophy’, in Rousseau, G.S. and Porter, R. (eds), The Ferment of Knowledge, Cambridge, 1980, pp. 55–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar See also Altick, R.D., The Shows of London, Cambridge, Mass, 1978, p. 81.Google Scholar

⁵² See Plumb, J.H., ‘The Public Literature and the Arts in the 18th Century’, in Fritz, P. and Williams, D. (eds), The Triumph of Culture: 18th Century Perspectives, Toronto, 1972Google Scholar; McKendrick, N., Brewer, J., Plumb, J.H., The Birth of a Consumer Society, Bloomington, 1982Google Scholar; Plumb, J.H., ‘Reason and Unreason in the Eighteenth Century: the English Experience’, in his In the Light History, Boston, 1973Google Scholar; Porter, R., ‘The Englightenment in England’, in Porter, R. and Teich, M. (eds), The Enlightenment in National Context, Cambridge, 1981CrossRefGoogle Scholar; English Society in the Eighteenth Century, Harmondsworth, 1982Google Scholar, especially 289 ff.; Rogers, P., The Augustan Vision, London, 1974Google Scholar; for popular innovations in literature see his Literature and Popular Culture in Eighteenth Century England, Brighton, 1985Google Scholar; Watt, I., The Rise of the Novel: Studies in Defoe, Richardson and Fielding, Harmondsworth, 1967Google Scholar; and in the visual arts, Wittkower, R., ‘The Artists’, in Clifford, J.L. (ed.), Man Versus Society in 18th century Britain, Cambridge, 1968.Google Scholar

⁵³ Gray, S., ‘A letter to Cromwell Mortimer, M.D. Secretary of the Royal Society containing several Experiments concerning Electricity’, Philosophical Transactions, 37, pp. 18–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

⁵⁴ Ibid., pp. 18–19 (my emphasis).

⁵⁵ Ibid., p. 22.

⁵⁶ Ibid., p. 27.

⁵⁷ Ibid., p. 20.

⁵⁸ Ibid., p. 25.

⁵⁹ Quoted from Clark, and Murdin, , op. cit. (22), p. 404.Google Scholar The epigramatic praise of Gray's work was composed by Anna Williams, his assistant at the Charterhouse and an acquaintance of Samuel Johnson who probably styled the original verse. See also Boswell, J., op. cit. (41), ii, p. 26.Google Scholar