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Download fileA cosmology of invisible fluids: wireless, x rays and psychical research around 1900
journal contribution
posted on 2015-11-12, 11:26 authored by Simone NataleOn December 28, 1895, the German physicist Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen disclosed his discovery of X-rays to the public. Just a few months later, Guglielmo Marconi successfully demonstrated his wireless system at Salisbury Plain, England. This article traces the relations between the early histories of wireless and X-ray technology. It does so by highlighting the role played by psychic research to open the connections between different technologies and knowledges. The disclosure of occult connections between these two technologies helps to locate the cultural reception of wireless around 1900 in a wider cosmology of rays and invisible forces.
Funding
Research leading to the publication of this article has been conducted thanks to a Visiting Scholarship at the Communication Studies Department of Concordia University, Montréal.
History
School
- Social Sciences
Department
- Communication, Media, Social and Policy Studies
Published in
Canadian Journal of Communication 36.2 (2011): 263-75.Volume
36Issue
2Pages
263 - 275Citation
NATALE, S., 2011. A cosmology of invisible fluids: wireless, x rays and psychical research around 1900. Canadian Journal of Communication, 36 (2), pp. 263-75.Publisher
© Canadian Journal of Communication CorporationVersion
- VoR (Version of Record)
Publisher statement
This work is made available according to the conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Canada Licence. (CC BY-NC-ND 2.5 CA) licence. Full details of this licence are available at: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.5/ca/Publication date
2011Notes
This is an Open Access article published in the Canadian Journal of Communication and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Canada Licence. Details are available at: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.5/ca/ISSN
1499-6642Publisher version
Language
- en