Friedrich Engels and Electricity

Eberhard Illner ()
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Eberhard Illner: Museum of Early Industrialization

A chapter in 200 Years of Friedrich Engels, 2022, pp 153-166 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract Friedrich Engels is regarded in research not only as an expert on military technology but also as a well-informed scientific journalist on chemistry, physics, anthropology, and linguistics. His manuscripts for a book he planned on natural dialectics provide evidence of this. In a text from 1882, he discussed the state of research on electricity, especially electrolysis. Engels recognized – albeit late – the eminent importance of the use of this new energy source and derived from it supporting impulses for a political revolution along the lines of the French Revolution. Although Engels’ outlook was not realized, he recognized important effects of the decentralization of industrial production in Europe and the USA, which arose within a short period of time due to the availability of electrical energy in many places. Furthermore, and against the background of the scientific history of electromagnetism and electrodynamics, this chapter addresses the question of how familiar Engels actually was with the development of the science and technology of electricity.

Keywords: Dialectics of nature; Physics; Electromagnetism; Electrolysis; Electrical engineering; B140; B190; N6 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:euhchp:978-3-031-10115-1_11

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DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-10115-1_11

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