ABSTRACT
The non-fiction responses to electricity discusses in this chapter illustrates literary qualities, not just in writings about science but also in the reading methods upon which they relied and the interrelated changes in social and publication contexts, particularly the emergence of the popular periodical. Popular literature tends to be associated with fiction. However, the new publication forums for non-fiction that emerged from the early nineteenth century increased interest in electricity considerably. From the 1820s, the exploration of electricity in particular underwent a unique cultural relocation that made it an increasingly popular activity, rather than the exclusive domain of scientific elites. The rapidly growing market for published works in the 1840s produced a very different type of scientific authorship, one that sought to address complex subjects such as electricity and to convey, beyond formal institutional frameworks, developments in science to readers. The earliest books about electricity were designed for children rather than adults.
