In Electric Universe, David Bodanis weaves tales of romance, divine inspiration, and fraud through a lucid account of the invisible force that permeates our universe. In these pages the virtuoso scientists who plumbed the secrets of electricity come vividly to life, including familiar giants like Thomas Edison; the visionary Michael Faraday, who struggled against the prejudices of the British class system; and Samuel Morse, a painter who, before invent-ing the telegraph, ran for mayor of New York 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 in difference, and who ended his life in despair after British authorities forced him to underao experimental treatments to "cu re" his homosexuality.

PART I

WIRES

1. The Frontiersman and the Dandy

Albanv, 1830, and Washington, D.C., 1836

2. Aleck and Mabel

Boston, 1875

5. ThomasandlJ.

New York, 1878

PART II

WAVES

4. Faraday's God

London, 1831

5. Atlantic Storms

HMS Agamemnon, 1858, and Scotland, 1861

PART III

WAVE MACHINES

6. A Solitary Man

 Karlsruhe, Germany, 1887

7. Power in the Air

 Suffolk Coast, 1939, and Bruneval, France 1942

8. Power Unleashed

 Hamburg, 1943

PART IV

A COMPUTER BUILT OF ROCK

9. Turing

 Cambridge, 1936, and Bletchley Park, 1942

10. Turing's Legacy

 New Jersey, 1947

PART V

THE BRAIN AND BEYOND

11. Wet Electricity

 Plymouth, England, 1947

12. Electric Moods

 Indianapolis, 1972, and Today

WHAT HAPPENED NEXT

MR. AMP MR. VOLT, AND MR, WATT

NOTES

GUIDE TO FURTHER READING

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

INDEX