ABSTRACT
The primary appeal of electricity in the nineteenth century might seem, at first, to have been the pursuit of modernity; however, never far behind lay a bevy of associations with the past and contemporary readers' yearnings for those. Electrical power and its attendant technologies promised a revolutionised future, an affordable one, liberated by universal ideals of ease and convenience that could protect against the conflicts and challenges of the future, providing the foundation for the 'brilliant electric armour of the modern world'. Electricity's origins were profoundly natural but, in its modem form as electrical power, it seemed to stand in opposition to the historically natural processes of which man had always been a part. Understanding responses to electricity and its accompanying technologies is not, therefore, relevant only to history, science or literature; it is also crucial to understanding how these same responses may determine our futures.
