Georg Wilhelm Richmann, martyr of electricity

“QWhatever attempt was made to recall to life the unfortunate martyr of electricity, he gave no sign of life. Thus ended the life of Georg Wilhelm Richmann, aged 42, on August 6, 1753, as we learn from the autopsy report filed with the Royal Society of London.

This sad affair did not arise from nothing. It appears as the fatal outcome of the dangerous experimental practices that had spread among the physicists of the XVIII^e century. The whole thing goes back to a 1750 text by Benjamin Franklin. The American scientist proposes to build “a kind of sentry box, large enough to contain a man”, and surmounted by a pointed metal rod about ten meters high, intended to capture the electricity of the clouds. .