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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
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- Social Sciences
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- Communication, Media, Social and Policy Studies