A
Shocking Kiss Anna
Williams, claims to have been the first person to notice sparks from an electrically
charged human body.
Anna
Williams, born near Haverfordwest in 1706, was a remarkable woman. She was a friend
of Samuel Johnson, well educated, and a poet in her own write. When she accompanied
her father to London in 1727 she began to assist Stephen Gray, an enthusiast for
things electrical, in his experiments with static electricity produced by friction.
She claimed to have been the first person to notice and describe the emission
of sparks from an electrically charged human body. In 1740 Anna lost her sight
and, being left alone after her father was admitted to an institution, was accommodated
by Johnson at his various residences from 1752.
In Science Magazine
in 2002 two scientists from Graz and Chicago have described the development of
experiments in static electricity by Gray, Williams and others during the 18th
century. The authors state that Gray was the first to demonstrate human electrification
by showing that a child suspended on silk lines from the ceiling and charged from
a rubbed glass tube would attract fragments of gold-leaf. This was in 1732. Then,
in 1734, Charles Dufay described his experiment on the same lines and confirmed
Gray's findings.
But Dufay also noted that if he electrified his own
body other phenomena occurred. If another person brought his hand within an inch
of Dufay's body, "... there immediately issues from my Body one or more pricking
Shoots, with a crackling Noise that causes to that Person as well as to myself
a little Pain resembling the burning from a Spark of Fire." Gray gave Dufay
full credit for this discovery.
Recognition of the work of Anna Williams
was not as forthcoming. In a book called 'Miscellanies in prose and verse' (1766),
Anna claimed: "The Publisher of this Miscellany, as she was assisting Mr
Grey [sic] in his experiments, was the first that observed and notified the emission
of the electrical spark from a human body." It is strange that Gray failed
to acknowledge this. He is reputed to have had a difficult personality, and was
unwilling to accept any opposition from others. On the other hand, Anna herself
tended to overestimate her own achievements, on the evidence of an argument she
had over whether some of her verse was original or had been modified by Johnson.
Whatever the truth about the sparking controversy, the technique of charging
a body and drawing sparks and shocks from it became a popular amusement at fairs
and public demonstrations in the 18th century, and static electricity generators
were devised to support the craze, which continued into our own times.
We ought to remember the contribution made by Anna Williams to our science.
