A Pioneer of Connection: Recovering the Life and Work of Oliver Lodge

Description to come.

Sir Oliver Lodge (1851-1940) was a physicist and spiritualist, inventor and educator, author and authority whose career linked the Victorian age with the Second World War. A key participant in the invention of wireless, he was a foundational figure in twentieth-century media technology and a tireless communicator, who contributed to many of the pressing debates of the day. Yet since his death Lodge has been marginalized, typically appearing as a tangential figure in histories of science, spiritualism, religion, education or technology.

This book redresses this by locating Lodge in the broad range of historical contexts in which he was active. Under the themes of continuity and communication, the contributors in this collection explore how different facets of his life and work informed one another and how his cultural authority rested on his ability to interpret the latest scientific developments. They account for why he was so greatly cherished by many of his contemporaries, examine reasons for his eclipse, and consider what Lodge might teach contemporary readers about taking a more integrated approach to the scientific controversies of the day.

Sir Oliver Lodge was an extraordinarily polymathic scientific figure who linked the Victorian Age with the Second World War, a reassuring figure of continuity across his long life and career. A physicist and spiritualist, inventor and educator, author and authority, he was one of the most famous public figures of British science in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. A pioneer in the invention of wireless communication and later of radio broadcasting, he was foundational for twentieth-century media technology and a tireless communicator who wrote upon and debated many of the pressing interests of the day in the sciences and far beyond. Yet since his death, Lodge has been marginalized. By uncovering the many aspects of his life and career, and the changing dynamics of scientific authority in an era of specialization, contributors to this volume reveal how figures like Lodge fell out of view as technical experts came to dominate the public understanding of science in the second half of the twentieth century. They account for why he was so greatly cherished by many of his contemporaries, examine the reasons for his eclipse, and consider what Lodge, a century on, might teach us about taking a more integrated approach to key scientific controversies of the day.