Physicist Oliver Lodge is probably best known for the apocryphal tantrum he threw over Einstein’s theory of relativity. The outburst relegated Lodge, who repeatedly missed opportunities to become rich and famous, to the dustbin of history. A Pioneer of Connection: Recovering the Life and Work of Oliver Lodge, a collected volume edited by James Mussell and Graeme Gooday, shows that there was much more to his life and work than that singular event.
Lodge’s career demonstrates that although history is often told by the proverbial winners, scientific knowledge is produced through a productive dialog between advocates and detractors. Lodge was one of only a few brave souls who dared to look at an accepted idea and say, “That’s not right.” Even when wrong, voices like Lodge’s are invaluable because they push researchers to check their claims. Filling a notable gap in the scholarly literature, Mussell and Gooday’s volume provides a welcome reminder of why hero worship does a disservice to our understanding of scientific progress.
Lodge was the patron saint of thankless scientific tasks. He repeated experiments countless times, showed lay audiences how science worked, edited journals and articles, and tirelessly advocated for science funding and education. He excelled at teaching physics, and his sensational lectures, often featuring lightning demonstrations, brought the general public’s attention to otherwise esoteric laboratory research. Before radio became commonplace, for example, his lectures showed how electromagnetic waves could be detected by early receivers known as coherers. Those activities raised the public profile of science in the UK, but they brought Lodge little glory; he is a particularly tragic figure because he had the skills to achieve tremendous scientific renown but chose otherwise.
Nevertheless, his scientific work should not be underestimated. Today his discoveries are more important than ever because the fields in which he worked—most notably, the electrodynamics of wireless transmission—form the backbone of our modern technological universe. Among many other contributions, A Pioneer of Connection makes clear that it was Lodge who authored the first publication announcing the discovery of electromagnetic waves and who first published results verifying Maxwell’s theory of electromagnetic radiation.
So why is Lodge not more celebrated today? One reason is because he criticized Einstein’s theory of relativity. Ironically, as Bernard Lightman demonstrates in his chapter, Lodge’s criticisms of relativity theory were valid—in fact, Albert Einstein himself agreed with them. A second reason stems from Lodge’s research into psychic and spiritual phenomena, epitomized by his 1916 book Raymond, or Life and Death, which details communications beyond the grave with his youngest son, who was killed during World War I in 1915.
Here, too, we should celebrate Lodge, for despite his belief that communication with the deceased was possible, he nevertheless warned the public about how many mediums took advantage of people’s vulnerabilities. During his day, it was commonplace even for educated people to hold spiritualist beliefs; it is largely due to Lodge that most everyone now tends to distrust those who allegedly communicate with the dead. Moreover, his advocacy of science education, his public lectures, and his willingness to test wild claims are key reasons why many spiritualist beliefs were checked against the best science of the era. Mussell argues in his chapter that Lodge’s studies on psychic phenomena are as much a part of his scientific legacy as his research on telegraphic systems, loudspeakers, and microphones.
Setting himself apart from the scientific trends of his day, Lodge warned of the dangers of going off on a theoretical limb without experimental support. For him, physics was about “hands-on laboratory work,” to be followed by a theoretical apparatus based on “tangible physical concepts, not symbols.” Such knowledge would lead to a better, “full-blooded” understanding of the universe—one in which it was much easier to know why we should care about knowing. Lodge also played a key role in the successful struggle to incorporate science into the general curriculum at British universities; previously, it was relegated to polytechnical schools.
One of the most interesting claims in A Pioneer of Connection is that Lodge was self-conscious of his tendency to damage his own reputation. He left accolades for others to collect, just as many talented untenured lecturers, adjuncts, and laboratory scientists do today. His life demonstrates that second place in science should receive more attention. What use are first observations if they are not confirmed? In science, the inclusion of less prestigious lives matters.
Jimena Canales is an expert in the history of 19th and 20th century physics. Her books include The Physicist and The Philosopher: Einstein, Bergson and the Debate that Changed Our Understanding of Time and, most recently, Bedeviled: A Shadow History of Demons in Science.
