Greifswald 2024 – scientific programme

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GP: Fachverband Geschichte der Physik

GP 1: Understanding the Environment

GP 1.3: Talk

Monday, February 26, 2024, 18:00–18:30, ELP 3: HS 2.33

Ringing and shooting. Thunderstorm defence practices in the 18th century — •Julia Bloemer — Europa-Universität, Flensburg, Deutschland

The lightning rod is regarded as a prime product of the Enlightenment in the eighteenth century: It materialised the benefits of natural science and marked a liberation from superstition. However, this obscures the fact that older protective practices already existed and continued to be discussed and used even after the lightning rod became widespread. In the foothills of the Alps, these were the so-called thunderstorm ringing and thunderstorm shooting. Using the example of two prize questions of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences, this paper shows how the discussion of these practices contributed significantly to the understanding of meteorological relationships. The change from the original pious practices to physical phenomena and their investigation via electrical experiments shows how broad the discussion was alongside the lightning rod and that it was anything but mono-directional.

Keywords: History of Physics