|
|
|
|
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
|
OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
--------
Date: Thu Jun 24 00:01:39 EDT 1999
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--galvanize
galvanize (GAL-vuh-nyze) verb tr.
1. To stimulate or shock with an electric current.
2. To arouse to awareness or action; spur.
3. To coat (iron or steel) with rust-resistant zinc.
[After Luigi Galvani (1737-1798), Italian physiologist and physician who
asserted that animal tissues generate electricity. Although he was proved
wrong, his experiments stimulated research on electricity.]
As I remember reading about it, Galvani had dissected out
frog gastrocnemius muscles, and hung them on a metal frame so that both ends were touching the metal. The muscles contracted. He had no instrument capable of detecting the
very tiny current produced by electrolysis when two different metals are connected by a solution containing
ions. Here is encyclopedia article:
Galvani, Luigi
(l´j gälvä´n) (KEY) , 1737–98, Italian physician. He was professor of anatomy from 1775 at the Univ. of Bologna and was noted as a surgeon and for research in comparative anatomy. During experiments on muscle and nerve preparations of frogs, he noticed the contraction of a frog’s leg touched with charged metal. He devised an arc of two metals with which contractions could be induced and in 1791 published his results, attributing the source of electricity to the animal tissue. The explanation was disputed by Volta, who correctly believed that the electricity originated in the metallic arc. The controversy focused attention on electricity in animals and stimulated research in electrotherapy and on electric currents. Many terms in electricity are derived from Galvani’s name.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
I just remembered a phenomenon that many other members may
have experienced. Accidentally touching a fork or other
metal to an amalgam tooth filling can be quite unpleasant.
Again, two dissimilar metals produce a tiny electric
current, which the nerve of the tooth experiences as pain.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 3,065
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 3,065 |
Apparently accounts of Galvani's experiments were one of the inspirations for Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus".
Bingley
Bingley
|
|
|
|
Forums16
Topics13,913
Posts229,315
Members9,182
| |
Most Online3,341
Dec 9th, 2011
|
|
|
1 members (wofahulicodoc),
340
guests, and
3
robots. |
|
Key:
Admin,
Global Mod,
Mod
|
|
|
|
|
|
