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For the mere purpose of entertainment and the excitement of wonder, a display of brilliant electric experiments, even when performed in the most promiscuous and confused order, never fail to afford ample gratification to the curiosity. The studious observer, however, whose business is to inquire into the true beauties of the science, requires the most judicious arrangement of the phenomena that can possibly be devised, in order to facilitate his acquaintance with them, and with the laws by which they are displayed and associated with each other.
--
William Sturgeon (1842). Lectures on electricity. London : Sherwood, Gilbert, and Piper. p. 123-124. 

 

William Sturgeon

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