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Please join our next Research Seminar at the Science Museum.
Charlotte Connelly: Untangling Ohm’s apparatus
6 June, 13-14h
Dana Study
Dana Research Centre and Library, 165 Queen’s Gate, London SW7 5HD.
These seminars are open to students, museum professionals and academics with an interest in research relating to material culture and museums.
Feel free to bring a packed lunch to eat during the seminar.
Charlotte Connelly (University of Cambridge/Science Museum): Untangling Ohm’s apparatus
In 1826, when Georg Simon Ohm first published the famous electrical law now known simply as Ohm’s law, he described a piece of apparatus that drew on recent developments in theories of electricity and magnetism. In seeking to become familiar
with his apparatus, despite the fact that the original instrument is not believed to have survived, I have interacted with replica instruments held at the Science Museum, the Deutsches Museum and the Europa–Universität in Flensburg, Germany. In this presentation
I will describe my own fledgling experiments in reproducing parts of Ohm’s apparatus. This work strives to understand the challenges Ohm faced, while also gaining a tactile understanding of electrical effects. This is particularly valuable when studying a
period where the language to describe electrical phenomena had not yet been standardised. Through this work I have been able to untangle what at first appears to be a complicated piece of apparatus, and better understand the theoretical and practical challenges
inherent in its use. Most importantly, however, different parts of the apparatus provide physical evidence for Ohm’s position in debates taking place at the time. While his writing may have aimed to please all parties, the instrument had to take sides.
We look forward to seeing you.
Convened by Bergit Arends and Oliver Carpenter
Bergit Arends
Acting Research and Public History Manager
Tuesday to Thursday
Dana Research Centre and Library
Science Museum
165 Queens Gate
London SW7 5HD
Tel 0207 942 4036
www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/research
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