location: Royal Society, London
date: 24 April 2014
registration: closed
programme: download here
Lodge’s scientific reputation had been established through his work detecting signals transmitted through the ether and this interest places Lodge at the heart of a number of key cultural concerns. The ether was a cultural metaphor: a medium that was posited in order to account for connections between people of various kinds. Studying Lodge’s spiritualism provides a new way of understanding his physics, but also a way of approaching broader communication networks, occult or otherwise, of the period.
The poster and programme for the event are available to download here (pdf).
Programme:
| 09:00 | Registration and coffee |
| 09:30 | Welcome and opening remarks, Graeme Gooday, Jim Mussell, and Richard Noakes |
| 10:00 | (Chair: Richard Noakes) Elizabeth Bruton, ‘“The Arch Builders of Wireless Telegraphy”: the roles of Oliver Lodge, William Preece, and Guglielmo Marconi in early wireless history’ J. Patrick Wilson, ‘Oliver Lodge’s Contributions to Technology’ |
| 11:30 | Tea and coffee |
| 12:00 | (Chair: David Hendy) Christine Ferguson, ‘The Case of Fletcher: Shell Shock, Spiritualism, and Lodge’s Raymond; Or Life and Death (1916).’ Richard Noakes, ‘Completing Modern Physics: Oliver Lodge’s Imperial Science of the Ether’ |
| 13:30 | Lunch |
| 14:30 | (Chair: Christine Ferguson) David Hendy, ‘Lodge, The Ether and the Public Airwaves’Peter Bowler, ‘Etherial Evolution for Everyman: Oliver Lodge’s Campaign for Liberal Religious Values’ |
| 16:00 | Rountable discussion featuring Liz Bruton, Peter Bowler, Christine Ferguson, Graeme Gooday, David Hendy, Richard Noakes. |
| 16:45 | Closing remarks, Graeme Gooday |
| 17:00 | Workshop ends |
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