"I began to envision a project on eighteenth-century electrical technology sometime in 1992. In search of the earliest motors for my 1994 book on electric automobiles, I came across a reference to Benjamin Franklin's “electrical jack, ” an electrostatic motor. I tracked down the original source and read it with rapt attention; I also did some desultory reading about eighteenth-century electricity. At the time, this was no more than a pleas- ant and brief diversion from electric automobiles. But one impression reg- istered deeply: the eighteenth century was an electrical age, with fascinat- ing technology that played many roles in diverse people's lives. Someday, I promised myself, I would tell the story of this technology. But after I fin- ished the car book in 1993, another project—developing an artifact-based theory of human communication—consumed my attention for nearly five years..."