Giovanni Aldini
Unfortunately, the ambition and boldness that characterized these early days of the electric revolution didn’t always lead to stories of progress. One particularly gruesome initiative led to a darker side of human invention; an experiment devised by Galvani’s nephew, Giovanni Aldini. One day, Aldini took a man’s body fresh from the gallows and put two electrodes powered by voltaic piles on the dead man’s body—one in his anus and another at the top of his spine. The limp dead body sat right up and the spine arched and twisted. Aside from this element of shock, Aldini’s experiments never led to anything useful. His best contribution to mankind was perhaps inspiring one of the most powerful and enduring stories ever written: Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein.
Source: Shock and Awe: The Story of Electricity. Presented by Jim Al-Khalili, BBC, 2015
Public Domain
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Full disclosure, I may occasionally borrow a sentence from Will Durant's Story of Civilization. I absolutely love that collection!