The main aim of this project is to examine and record the illustrations of electrical devices and of laboratory configurations, and also of electrical phenomena (such as the lightning discharge) and see how these images develop over time. These images have never been examined in detail, the names of their engravers have never been recorded, and little work has been done to compare the same images in different textbooks and in different editions of the same textbook. Thus, there is no corpus of engravers known to have specialized in this type of work, nor do we know to what extent the same images were simply copied in different textbooks. Some work done by me in the past has indicated that we have to treat these images very carefully as historical evidence. For instance, I have found the same images lifted from early into much later textbooks. For example, the famous electric spark illustration by Martinus van Marum of 1784 can still be found in Silvanus Thompson's textbook of 1918, but now out of context and with no reference to the illustration's origins.

The study of the Bakken material and of similar collections elsewhere will make it possible for the first time to establish a corpus of who the artists and engravers were who were involved in this type of illustration, and how this visual material was utilized by the textbook publishers. It should also throw interesting light on the relationship between the scientists of the electrical sciences and the artists and the purposes intended for these 'visual artefacts'.   

Among the fascinating preliminary findings of the Bakken material are the following: (1) certain natural philosophers (of the stature of Tiberius Cavallo) made their own drawings for their textbooks and these were then engraved professionally; (2) several engravers in the 18 th century appeared to have specialized in engravings of scientific topics, as their names occur on plates in different textbooks; (3) sometimes the same woodblocks and engraved plates were used in different editions, and perhaps even passed on to foreign editions, while at other times new plates were made for new editions; (4) sometimes such plates appeared to have been 'pirated' by publishers many years later or copies made of the original illustrations; (5) the latter occurs in particular with foreign editions, often indicated by the new engraving being a mirror image of the original; (6) quite often these engravings, in particular the frontispieces, have subtle changes made to them for these foreign editions.    

The Bakken study is part of an ongoing research project by me on the iconography of electricity. Any suggestions on important collections of visual material on early electricity, or on the project in general, would be most welcome. My email address is: willem@hackmann.fsnet.co.uk, and I also hope to be able to put together a website in the not too distant future.

Synopsis of Dr. Hackmann's talk on the iconography of electricity.

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© The Bakken Updated: April 6, 2007