Electric Universe: The Shocking True Story of Electricity

by David Bodanis

In his bestselling E=mc2, David Bodanis led us, with astonishing ease, through the world’s most famous equation. Now, in Electric Universe , he illuminates the wondrous yet invisible force that permeates our universe—and introduces us to the virtuoso scientists who plumbed its secrets.

For centuries, electricity was seen as little more than a curious property of certain substances that sparked when rubbed. Then, in the 1790s, Alessandro Volta began the scientific investigation that ignited an explosion of knowledge and invention. The force that once seemed inconsequential was revealed to be responsible for everything from the structure of the atom to the functioning of our brains. In harnessing its power, we have created a world of wonders—complete with roller coasters and radar, computer networks and psychopharmaceuticals.

A superb storyteller, Bodanis weaves tales of romance, divine inspiration, and fraud through lucid accounts of scientific breakthroughs. The great discoverers come to life in all their brilliance and idiosyncrasy, including the visionary Michael Faraday, who struggled against the prejudices of the British class system, and Samuel Morse, a painter who, before inventing the telegraph, ran for mayor of New York City on a platform of persecuting Catholics. Here too is Alan Turing, whose dream of a marvelous thinking machine—what we know as the computer—was met with indifference, and who ended his life in despair after British authorities forced him to undergo experimental treatments to “cure” his homosexuality.

From the frigid waters of the Atlantic to the streets of Hamburg during a World War II firestorm to the interior of the human body, Electric Universe is a mesmerizing journey of discovery by a master science writer.

Genres: Science, Nonfiction, History, Physics, Technology, Audiobook, History Of Science

320 pages, Hardcover

First published February 15, 2005

About the author

David Bodanis' latest book THE ART OF FAIRNESS: THE POWER OF DECENCY IN A WORLD TURNED MEAN was published November 2020 and asks the question that has long fascinated David: Can you succeed without being a terrible person? The answer is 'Yes, but you need skill', and the book shows how. I demonstrate those insights through a series of biographies…

David Bodanis is the bestselling author of THE SECRET HOUSE and E=MC2, which was turned into a PBS documentary and a Southbank Award-winning ballet at Sadler's Wells. David also wrote ELECTRIC UNIVERSE, which won the Royal Society Science Book of the Year Prize, and PASSIONATE MINDS, a BBC Book of the Week. Then a return to Einstein and the struggles he went through with EINSTEIN'S GREATEST MISTAKE which was named ‘Science Book of the Year’ by the Sunday Times, and also widely translated.

David has worked for the Royal Dutch Shell Scenario Prediction unit and the World Economic Forum. He has been a popular speaker at TED conferences and at Davos. His work has been published in the Financial Times, the Guardian, and the New York Times, and has appeared on Newsnight, Start the Week, and other programs. When not slumped in front of a laptop, he has been known to attempt kickboxing, with highly variable results.

Reviews

[Wilson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm giving this three stars because what's there is pretty good, for what it is. But it's a grudging rating, for the book has one glaring, unforgivable fault.

The idea of this book is that it's meant to be a beginner's introduction to the underlying concepts of electricity: how it works and what's going on, as well as interesting stories surrounding the discoveries of those concepts.

And to that extent, it succeeds.

Purists will be upset by this book because it uses the device of lies to children to get a lot of the ideas across; that is, it simplifies - sometimes grossly simplifies - concepts, sometimes even mischaracterizing them, in order to be able to make the information more understandable to people entirely new to the ideas.

But this book isn't meant for purists. If you already have a reasonably good understanding of how electricity works, skip this book - it isn't for you. It's meant for people who are just beginning to get it; for them, it works.

However (and here we come to the glaring flaw I mentioned), this book contains a sin of omission: there is Not. One. Mention of Nicola Tesla. In the section on Edison, no mention of his and Tesla's very public battle over whether the electric grid should be using direct current (Edison) or alternating current (Tesla), and why Tesla won (because he was right!).

In the bit about Marconi, he ignores the fact that many of Marconi's patents - based on the work of Tesla, among others - were overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1943 (6 years after Marconi's death).

Given that much of the book is interesting stories about the scientists who discovered the properties of electricity and wrote its stories, it's curious - not to mention disquieting - that the Edison/Tesla conflict, at the very least (since it deals with an aspect of the electrical system that is still very important to us today) would be ignored.

[Judy Mann · Rating 1 out of 5]

Look I have to say that this book was way off the mark.The author lost all
his credibility as soon as I checked the index and saw that there was not a
single reference to Tesla. Not ONE. That's like writing the history of Christianity
and forgetting to mention Jesus Christ.Had it not been for Nicola Tesla the whole world would still be running off a battery. Tesla was brilliant and this guy neglects to mention
him????? No. As soon as I saw that- I knew he was going to glorify
Edison.That's the way it works. You dismiss Tesla- you lie about Edison
You make him into a great man when in fact Edison stole most of his ideas from Tesla.
I should've stopped reading the book right then and there.To me it was all
worthless propaganda.Edison was a crook. Period. All he did was discover the use of tungsten
so that light bulbs could last longer. That's it.
If you have any knowledge of electricity- don't read this book.
It'll make you sick with disgust.
JM

[Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

ενδιαφέρον αλλά όχι τόσο καλό όσο θα περίμενα... δεν είναι ακριβώς η ιστορία του ηλεκτρισμού, ή της ηλεκτρονικής ή των υπολογιστών... είναι κάτι ενδιάμεσο... οπότε λέει λίγα για πολλά θέματα...

[Melanie · Rating 1 out of 5]

I listened to this as an audio book.

Seriously, I hated this book, I only listened to it because it kept me from falling asleep while commuting. Actually, the anger I sometimes felt while listening worked pretty effectively for that. This book is intended for someone who has absolutely no understanding of science at all and has never even thought about what electricity might be. In that case, why would they start now? Perhaps I was especially disappointed because I had just listened to Eistein, His Life and Times, which was quite good. That book explained Einstein's admittedly difficult concepts in a way that was comprehensible to non-scientists (I think) without insulting their intelligence. This book simplified electricity and its behavior to such a level that is is not enlightening AT ALL and will make you sound like an idiot if you repeat any of it.

Just for good measure, the reader had an annoying, raspy voice.

[Rhonda Sarantis · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm crazy about this book. Listened to it on the way to California, and then listened to it again with Peter! First of all, it explains electricity in simple terms so I understood it. Second of all, he introduces you to each advance--telegraph, telephone, light bulb, etc., all the way to computers--by acquainting you with the person responsible for the discovery. Finally, when I thought the book was through and I was completely satisfied, he launches into how electricity makes our bodies work! So enLIGHTening, and the Creator's hand is evident throughout.

[Christopher · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm a dummy when it comes to science, but even this felt lightweight to me. After reading a biography of Tesla, I wanted to know all about the development of electricity. Those beginning days of electricity feel more like magic than science. The idea of being able to harness weird sparky hot lightning stuff that comes out of the sky but also lives in pretty much everything... that's pretty cool. But this book makes it feel commonplace.

Rather than go into the science, this book wants to tell a story: the narrative of how electricity became integral to our world. And that's a good goal for a book to have, but it was just so blah. The narrative arc was cut up piecemeal so there wasn't a sense of this led to this which led to this. Instead, the feeling is that there was a scientist who did this thing and then there was another scientist who did this other, unrelated thing.

Anyway, skip this book. It's just nothing special.

[Rohan · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was short and informative to a point until when I realized there was no mention of Tesla in a book that talks about Electricity. It was surprising because Author mentions Edison and his discoveries.

He talks about a lot of important figures from the history but fails to mention the contribution of Quantum Theory (and people associated with them) in understanding electricity. An average piece of work at best.

[Pedro César · Rating 4 out of 5]

Após anos na biblioteca finalmente peguei nele, dado uma necessidade recente de entender como funciona a tecnologia atual.
Não parecendo especialmente atrativo pelo título é um livro que se lê bastante bem, altamente informativo com uma narrativa histórica bastante bem conseguida.
Explica-nos controlamos e somos controlados pela eletricidade, desde Volta, até Turing, passando por Bell e Edison.
Termina com uma passagem interessante sobre neurotransmissores.
Aconselho!

[Stephen Dorneman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Serviceable survey of how mankind's insight into electricity and its uses has advanced through the years, although much more time is spent on the personalities behind the discoveries and inventions than on explaining the physics and chemistry behind those events. Extensive recommendations for additional reading of source materials included, if you want to do the work yourself and go beyond the text. More like 3 1/2 stars than 4. Recommended, but only assuming the reader knows what they're going to get (and not get) going in.

[Douglas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just the right balance of facts, anecdotes and reflection. I learned a lot, even things I didn't know about the human body. These amazing electrons!

[Mitja · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it.

[Charlene · Rating 3 out of 5]

David Bodanis is truly great at writing the history of science. Even if I am well familiar with various histories, somehow he grabs my attention immediately, my dopamine neurons start going crazy, and I remained hooked for the entire book. I love the way he tells a history.

The one exception to his exceptional writing is that he wrote an entire book about electricity -- in the universe, in the world, and in the animal body-- without mentioning Tesla!! Edison received his due, as did so many others. How can anyone write a history of the discovery of electricity without discussing Tesla? It could be that awareness of Tesla's contribution was not as understood in 2004, when this book was published, as it is now. regardless of why, any book on electricity that leaves out Tesla cannot receive more than 3 stars.

The rest of the book is 5 stars all the way. ​Beautiful histories of how humans discovered waves, which were all around us but unseen. Bodanis' history of Faraday was exquisite. Volts should be called Faradays and Bodanis will tell you why. I only wish he had given the same treatment to Tesla that he gave to Faraday.

Bodanis examined electricity in the universe as it pulls opposite charged atoms together, creating wonderful reactions. When discussing the electricity in the brain, he begun the section with a beautiful image of stars exploding out the elements that would eventually help each brain mount a response. Excellent writing all around!

[Waqar Saleem · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book charts the history of electricity from its discovery to the current day. It shows how, along the way, the understanding of the nature of electricity grew from a stream of electrons gushing through a wire to the current perception of it. For each stage, Bodanis, the author, gives amusing accounts of the lives and motivations of the scientists involved, how they furthered contemporary understanding, the related inventions and their impact on society at the time.

Bodanis' style is humorous and the book unfolds like a well-developed fiction plot, always keeping the reader itching to find out what happens next. It is no textbook, and written for a general audience. As such, no previous physics background is necessary. However, in keeping the book accessible to a larger public, Bodanis skips quickly over details, so those who do have some background and want to gain an insight into the discoveries might be left a little frustrated.

All in all, it is an enjoyable book which keeps you hooked from start to finish like a fiction novel. There is hardly any kind of reader to whom I would not recommend it!

[William · Rating 2 out of 5]

Look, isn't electricity important for modern life and interesting. And here are a few anecdotes about it. That's the whole point of this book, so I have just saved you from having to read it. You're welcome.

[D · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent overview of all things electrical - from the telegraph to the human brain. We learn more about the inventors we thought we knew and discover the inventors who inspired them. Throughout it all, there are enough heroes and villains for several books.

[Myke · Rating 3 out of 5]

The personal accounts really undulated from interesting to stone cold boring. I probably would have liked a little more science at the expense of some of the personal stuff.

[J Barba · Rating 3 out of 5]

Aq

[Guy Rintoul · Rating 4 out of 5]

David Bodanis' book wins convincing plaudits from Bill Bryson, The Observer, The Sunday Times and The Economist to name but a few - and for good reason. Electric Universe is a fascinating look at electricity in all its forms, effortlessly mixing biography, science, history and humour.

The book is divided into five sections, chronologically detailing the progress of human understanding from 1830 to the present. First, 'Wires' deals with the discovery of electricity, and the first tentative steps of inventions such as the telegraph. Bodanis takes a fascinating look at the way new forms of electric communication changes the world, making it a smaller, more interconnected place. 'Waves' then looks at the increasingly deeper understanding of the way in which electricity worked, covering topics such as electromagnetic fields. The way in which these waves were then put to use are studied in the 'Wave Machines' section, including fascinating biographies of key players in the invention of radar.

Moving away from the discovery and initial uses of electricity to the more contemporary age, the second-to-last section covers Turing's work on computers during the war and his vision for the future, the realisation of the power of silicon, the invention of the transistor and the path to the modern computer world. And finally, 'The Brain and Beyond' looks at the discovery of and science behind the way in which our bodies work, effortlessly and clearly explaining the way in which we are vast, wet computers, with electric charges controlling everything from our nerves to our memory.

Of all these sections, I found two in particular - 'Wave Machines' and 'The Brain and Beyond' particularly fascinating, though more from personal preference and interest rather than any literary reason. In addition to the invention of radar, the former covers a diverse range of people and experiences, discusses the science behind the technology, and touches on the morality (or otherwise) of the way in which technology was used during the Second World War. The latter, 'The Brain and Beyond', is incredibly thought-provoking, illustrating just how miraculous the human body and its inner workings are.

To find any serious flaw with Bodanis' book is difficult. Only two things sprang out at me, and are the sole reason for my dropping the rating a little. The first is that chapter 6, which looks at Hertz's gradual increase in the understanding of electricity, has a slightly cobbled-together feel about it. Composed of excerpts from his diary, I can see Bodanis' point that his own words easily convey his progress in the field. However, page after page of quotes, cut and pasted with little linkage between excerpts, makes for rather bland and disjointed reading.

The second, more of a niggle than a flaw, is that Bodanis includes an excellent appendix detailing further information on points he makes throughout the book, referenced by page number. While it was interesting to reference back to each page and then read the extra information, some linkage the other way would have been appreciated. While I understand that the appendix was doubtless a solution to excessive footnotes, an indication in the main body of the text when further information was available would have allowed for a more flowing reference between the main body of the literature and the array of facts and references at the back.

As a complete package, however, the book is absolutely excellent. Well written, covering an enormous array of time, inventions, uses of electricity, people, human understanding and technologies, Bodanis has done an outstanding job, well deserving of the Aventis Prize for Science Books which it was awarded. It's few and far between that a book manages to balance simplicity with detail, coherence with complex science, man with machine, and fact with imagination. Absolutely worth a read, I'd recommend without hesitation Electric Universe to anyone who wants a great overview of the history of electricity.

[Written 2008]

[Preetam Chatterjee · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the foreword to his book ‘Electric Universe: How Electricity Switched on the Modern World’ David Bodanis writes: As the Victorian era dawned, that was still most of our knowledge: two metals, when positioned near each other, could sometimes produce a sparking current within a wire connecting them. It seemed a weak, merely curious phenomenon. But it was the first useful door into a world that had been sealed and hidden.

He continues: “In this book I show what has happened in the two centuries since humankind opened that door, which took a mere two centuries.

The first part looks at the Victorian researchers who had only a few tenuous glimpses of electricity, yet created devices never before imagined. There were telephones and telegraphs and lightbulbs; roller coasters and fast streetcars—and ever more electric motors powering them all. There was even an electrical fax machine operating efficiently in France in 1859—before the American Civil War.

The world started to change. The new wave of electrical technologies helped lead to the modern corporation and to votes for women, to suburbs stretching far from cities, and tabloid newspapers, and, influenced by crisp telegraph messages, to a new Hemingway-style prose. One exuberant telephone executive apparently remarked that Americans had become the first people who would interrupt sex to take a phone call.”

This narrative includes information on a fascinating cast of characters, including Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell, Michael Faraday, Alessandro Volta, Samuel Morse, Alan Turing, James Clerk Maxwell, and Cyrus West Field.

The author says: “The stories along the way are as much about religion, love, and cheating as they are about impersonal science or technology.

They take us from Hamburg cellars during a World War II firestorm to the mind of Alan Turing, brilliant computer inventor, hounded by the authorities of the very country he’d saved; from the slum-born Michael Faraday, slurred by his contemporaries because of his religious faith (yet who used his faith to become the first to see electric forces weaving invisibly through space); to a pampered artist, Samuel Morse, who eagerly ran for mayor of New York on a platform of persecuting Catholics, and who learned more about how telegraphs operate than he ever cared to admit, from a frontiersman who couldn’t believe anyone would wish to patent such an obvious idea.”

And there’s Graham bell: “There’s an exuberant twenty-something immigrant to America, Alexander Bell, desperate to capture the love of a deaf teenage student, and there’s the forty-something Robert Watson Watt, desperate to escape from a boring marriage and the tedium of 1930s Slough.

There’s Otto Loewi, who wakes up one Easter eve realizing he has solved the problem of how electricity works in our body, yet in the morning, agonizingly, can’t read the scrawled explanations he jotted beside his bed during the night; there’s the boy from rural Scotland, James Clerk Maxwell, who was treated as a fool for years by bullies at his elementary school, yet who became the nineteenth century’s greatest scientific theorist, able to envision the inner structure of the universe in a way that scientists of a later era would realize was profoundly true. All of these stories illuminate how the immense force of electricity was gradually seen: how it was led out from its hidden domain—and what we, imperfect humans, have made of the enhanced powers it has granted.”

Bodanis’s history of the science of electricity is a journey of discovery, as it vividly describes the work of the many scientists and pioneers who unlocked and applied electricity’s invisible secrets.

This is a must-read book for any average teen ager – and adult alike. Bodanis’s book makes electricity clear both as a force of nature and as an integral part of modern society.

[Ethan Hulbert · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I read Electric Universe by David Bodanis, I was surprised the whole way through at how new and good it was. I picked it up at one of my favorite bookstores in Chicago, Market Fresh Books in Little Italy, second-hand.

I’m a guy who’s read a lot of popular accounts on the developments of science, and know all the progress of quantum physics and relativity real well at this point. Those stories are more common. I’d never read a full popular account on the history and development of electricity, though, and how it changed the world in so many ways. But I’m sure glad I did.

I have to say, while I think all science-progress-history-etc stories are pretty interesting from a humanist standpoint, I didn’t expect electricity’s story to be this interesting. It was really… shocking, you might say, how huge of an effect it’s had through the years. Not something I’ve ever really consciously thought about before, for some reason. But it truly changed the world in every way.

This book wasn’t just great because of those histories, though. It was great because of the storytelling. I was amazed by how well David Bodanis could weave such an interesting and mesmerizing thread through these scientist’s adventures throughout the centuries, and to say that it kept my attention is an understatement. It was a real page-turner.

I almost wonder if the history was diluted a bit just for the sake of the stories, but there was so much fact backing up most of it that I’d doubt it. I believe that Mr. Bodanis’ great tone and voice as a writer just helped that much.

It’s hard to choose my favorite part, but I think the story I enjoyed most from Electric Universe was how the invention of radar turned the tide of battle one way and another in World War II. First for the Allies, then the Axis, then back to the Allies after secret raids I’d never heard about before. I enjoy some good WWII history, so WWII history + experimental science is just great.

I’d definitely recommend this book. Thrilling from front to back, and I even stayed up late to keep reading it. Learned a lot of great facts from it too, and even loaned it to my mother – she liked it too. Definitely check this book out if you get a chance.

[Dennis Littrell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Readable account, surprising but not "shocking"

The focus on the story of electricity here is on the scientists and inventors involved in its development and how electricity has changed our lives. It begins with "Wires" (title of the first part of the book) to "Waves" (Part II) through computers and finally to "The Brain and Beyond" in Part V.

This is not a technical book on how electricity works, instead Bodanis, who is also the author of E=MC2: A Biography of the World's Most Famous Equation (2000), which I highly recommend, concentrates on how electricity was discovered and how it came to be understood and how it was applied to do useful work. He begins with Joseph Henry who invented the telegraph only to have its value stolen from him by Samuel Morse who knew enough to get a patent. From there Bodanis goes to Alexander Graham Bell who managed to invent the telephone partly to win the hand of his true love, Mabel Hubbard whose social and economic station was at the time much above his. Then comes Thomas Edison, who is not an entirely charming figure, and surprisingly enough was very hard of hearing, but was amazing persistent--which he needed to be to find exactly the right material to burn inside the near vacuum of the light bulb. And then comes J.J. Thomson who discovered the electron.

Once the electron is discovered, the way electricity works seems to be understood, but then along comes electromagnetic waves, invisible force fields that led to radar, radio, television, computers and Global Positioning Systems. Bodanis spends some time with Alan Turing of World War II code-breaking fame who developed the idea of a "Universal Machine" that could calculate step-by-step (almost, I think) anything. Interesting is the development of the idea and usefulness of a semi-conductor.

Bodanis finishes with "wet electricity," the electricity based on sodium ions that works within living beings. There are thirty pages of notes, a Guide to Further Reading, and an index. Bodanis's style is eminently readable with just a touch of the sardonic. He allows the personalities to come to life and he makes the science seem facile.

--Dennis Littrell, author of “The World Is Not as We Think It Is”

[Wisdom Zelda · Rating 5 out of 5]

On Podcasts and Electricity

As we were driving home from piano lessons one day, my mother (with my siblings’ eager consent) decided to play a podcast about the history of light, from candle wax to light bulb fixtures. The podcast cast a spell on us. As we were listening to the acknowledgments, a name of a certain book caught my mother’s ear. This book was afterwards given to me to read, and truly, the book is as interesting as the podcast itself.

Electric Universe, by David Bodanis, is a book on the history of electricity. This book tells of the many inventions that were created using the powers of electricity. Bodanis, a master science writer, explains many concepts in a clear-cut way as he describes this electric history.

Every chapter in Electric Universe reveals a new intriguing and informative fact. I looked forward to every word, and there are not very many books that can make the reader do that! Certainly, before I read Electric Universe I didn’t know that a telegram cable had been spread across the Atlantic Ocean, or that Alexander Graham Bell had mostly been motivated to work so the aurally impaired could communicate too. Now I have a delicious amount of interesting information stored in my head to munch on.

Bodanis has a clear, straightforward style that makes many topics easy to understand. Thanks to this book, I finally understood that electricity should not be represented in the cartoonish little-ball style, but as a wave. I also learned how cocaine and anesthetics work as I read about the effects of sodium ions in nerves, . Because of Bodanis’s transparent style, I understood many things.

Electric Universe is an excellent book because of its lucidity and interesting facts. I would recommend it to anyone who hasn’t the faintest idea about how electricity works, and especially to anyone who likes podcasts about electricity. And if you'd like to see more youth reviewed books, go to my blog, bookshelfexplorer.

[Richard · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book could have been titled "The Deceptive and Dishonest World of Scientists" or "Intrigue in the Lab".

If you are not that into science and prefer the stories behind the people and the history of discoveries, this is your book! David Bodanis gives us the "National Enquirer" version of electricity by going into the stealing of discoveries, the grandstanding by scientists, the resistance to new ideas, and the "accidental discoveries" that are often more important than organized research.

There are a number of people that are left out in this book. It has been pointed out by others that Tesla but there are many more that Bodanis didn't include. Electrical force was known and used ancient Arabic, Egyptian, and Roman cultures and scientists way before Ben Franklin was credited with discovering it (can you say always credit older, white men). That said, this book does a great job of telling not only what electricity is and why it is so important to us, it also gives a great overview of the stumbling way discoveries happen and how the timing has had a major impact on the history of the human race.

This book doesn't limit itself to manufactured items like light bulbs and computers but also delves into how electricity is used to run animal bodies and how it lets us think and remember. There is a great deal of material covered in this book and the author livens up what could be a dull lecture by interspersing interesting "behind the scenes" information. After the book is "finished", Bodanis includes a number of interesting and lengthy appendixes with even more information - both historic and scientific.

If you are looking for a hard science textbook, this is not the book for you. However, if you like to learn science without falling asleep with the book on your lap, you will definitely find Electric Universe worth reading.

[M. Mundy · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book begins interestingly enough. It is well written and not overly scientific. Bodanis starts with a chapter on wires which sets the tone of the entire book. Unfortunately, his discussion on the discovery of electricity is filled with fictional details. Yet, after his limited discussion of wires he moves on to waves giving the reader a look at Faraday’s postulates. This discussion ends when the author declares that Faraday is misunderstood but later got revenge. Much information was given about the men who believed that there were “waves” or a mysterious force but no technical insight was provided.

When the discussion turned to radar waves, the focus of the book also changed and became more like a war story. One which quickly lost my interest. I think he many have done a better job to focus the entire book on how electricity made us warriors or something like the hidden connection between war and electricity. He handled the subject well, but served up a big bowl of poop to those looking to learn about electricity.

If you expected an introduction to electricity this is not the book. What you will find instead is a fictional account of the history of electricity, with emphasis on WWII. I cannot recommend this book for learning about electricity. Perhaps however, war enthusiast may find this book of some interest.

[Arturo Martín · Rating 3 out of 5]

Español: El autor realiza un recorrido histórico por algunos de los desarrollos que han venido gracias a la electricidad. Hay capítulos mejores que otros y oferece una visión diferente a otros libros que tratan alguno de los temas de este, pero en general el libro me ha dejado sin más:
1) La traducción al castellano es floja.
2) Me parece que la elección de los temas podría haber sido mejor: ni creo que todos los que aparecen sean tan relevantes ni están todos los que lo son.
Un punto positivo es la amplísima bibliografía comentada que aparece al final del volumen.

English: The author takes a historical look at some of the developments that have come about thanks to electricity. Some chapters are better than others and it offers a different vision to other books that deal with some of the topics in this one, but in general the book has left me the same as I began reading:
1) The translation into Spanish is weak.
2) It seems to me that the choice of topics could have been better: I don't think that all the topics that appear in the book are relevant, nor all the ones that are relevant appear.
A positive point is the extensive annotated bibliography at the end of the volume.

[William Schram · Rating 4 out of 5]

What would your life be like if there was a total blackout? I mean, electricity stops being generated. Well, there would be pandemonium; absolute anarchy would rule the streets. Think about it; electricity is entwined with our lives now, especially in places like the United States. Batteries would last for a while, but the internet would stop since the server farms underlying it would not get electricity. Cars would work, but the gas stations or petrol stations would not. Food would rot without refrigeration.

"Electric Universe" describes the development of electrical devices and theories utilizing electromagnetism. David Bodanis focuses on the people and their relationships rather than the equations. The inventions are the ones you would expect; the telegraph, the telephone, the electric lightbulb, the radio, the transatlantic cable, and so on.

Electrical forces have existed since the dawn of time, but we haven't always utilized them. It took such visionaries as Joseph Henry, Michael Faraday, James Clerk Maxwell, Alexander Graham Bell, Thomas Edison, and others to develop the technologies and ideas that support our modern lifestyles.

[Ehab mohamed · Rating 5 out of 5]

كون كهربائي: قرأت نسخته المترجمة الصادرة عن المركز القومي للترجمة بترجمة عزت عامر.


هذا كتاب مكتوب بحب وروقان، كتبه صاحبه وليس في عقله القاريء!، نعم ... فأفضل ما يكتب هو ما يكتبه صاحبه وهو في حالة ذوبان تام مع نفسه وفي نفسه، يحاول أن يفهم ويقنع نفسه بأبسط الطرق والوسائل ويطرح على نفسه الكثير من الإشكاليات التي قد لا يطرحها القاريء أصلا!


طوال الوقت ومنذ أن كنت صغيرا لدي شغف لمعرفة آلية عمل الكهرباء ، وكل ما درسته لم يشف غليلي ولم يفهمني حتى ظننت أنني غبيا.

هذا الكتاب استطاع أن يأخذ بيدي لبداية الطريق ، أن يعلمني بأبسط الطرق آلية عمل الكهرباء، والتلغراف والتليفون والراديو والرادار والحاسوب في سرد حميمي مزج فيه الكاتب ما بين المذكرات والعلم والقصص الحربية المثيرة، والعلاقات الإنسانية الغريبة، ليخرج لنا هذا الكتاب.


منذ سنوات، وبعد تخرجي من كلية الصيدلة ، كان لدي شغف لدراسة علم وظائف الاعضاء(الفسيولوجيا) وبالفعل بدأت بشكل منفرد وذاتي الدراسة، لاكتشف أنني أدرس الكهرباء لا الفسيولوجيا، وأن جسم الانسان ما هو إلا كون كهربائي مصغر تتسارع فيه النبضات الكهربية حرفيا عبر الأعصاب، ناقلة الإشارات الكهربية العصبية من وإلى المخ، وبالرغم من أنني لم أتم دراسة علم وظائف الأعضاء كاملا، إلا أنني درست مقدمته دراسة وافية، والتي كانت مقدمة كهربائية بامتياز، وهو ما ذكرني به الفصل الأخير من هذا الكتاب.


كتاب علمي وممتع في نفس الوقت، وقلما هي الكتب التي على هذه الشاكلة.

[Andy M · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bodanis begins with Volta's discovery of electricity and the development of many inventions dependent on it. It's incomplete, which a reader would expect for a book of this length pertaining to events and personalities spanning over three and a half centuries.

A reader unfamiliar with the topic must start at the shallow end, and Electric Universe was just right for its technical explanations. I've read the reviews of other readers who challenge Bodanis's explanations as errant. I'm not expert enough to affirm or refute these readers' reviews.

I felt that the explanation of the explosion of rock and roll music was unnecessarily hasty, and here was an instance where I disagreed. Bodanis claims that the transistor, as used in the transistor radio, was responsible for the rapid diffusion of the music of the mid-twentieth century. This is partly true, but it ignores something huge. The truth is that rock and roll actually kept vacuum tube amplification alive longer than it would have survived otherwise. Many musicians of other genres were interested in transistors because the transistor amplifiers removed the perceived problem of distortion. Rock and roll harnessed distortion because its kind of harmonics are not normally heard with acoustic instruments. Transistor amplifiers merely increase the volume of the instrument or the vocals, but tube amplifiers most audibly change the quality of the tone. (Tubes are not purer than transistors in sound at all.)

The book made the nearly unpardonable crime of leaving out Tesla, but this can be forgiven in a book that is so readable.

[David Evans · Rating 4 out of 5]

An extremely useful and fascinating history outlining the discovery of how electricity works and the men (it was men) who figured out how to harness its power. Watt, Volta, Ampere, Bell, Hertz, Morse and Faraday all get their moments to shine like an Edison bulb while less well remembered heroes who deserve to be household names including Joseph (Telegraph) Henry, Cyrus (Transatlantic Cable) Field and Robert Watson (Radar) Watt - yes, a direct descendant of the kettle lid observer - get dedicated chapters describing their own triumphs and disasters. There’s a useful primer on nerve conduction and a tribute to the work of Alan Turing for whom the semi-conductors of Brattain and Bardeen’s triumph in Silicon Valley came a few years too late.
The notes at the end add more detail and the recommended further reading list is excellent.
I too am not sure why Tesla doesn’t merit a mention - it was probably an accidental Ohmission.

[Ruby Mellinger · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you want to learn about electricity and magnetism, read a textbook. That's not what this book is for. Instead, this is a wonderful introduction to some of the people behind the major discoveries and developments involving electricity. You'll learn a little bit about some of the science on a very surface level, but the point of this book is to bring to life the people involved and, that, I think it does very well.

There are always going to be a few key people missing (some more about Tesla would have been nice) but for those Bodanis chose to talk about, he does a phenomenal job. I particularly liked the section on Alexander Graham Bell posed as an adorable love story.

I read this hoping to get some fun, personal anecdotes to add color and humanize the lectures in my electricity and magnetism class, and I definitely got that. Well done, interesting, and worth a read.