6.3 Bergman Becomes a Member of the Royal Academy
of Sciences
Initially, the Royal Academy had no limit of the number of members in contrast to
most other scientific societies, and by the late 1740s the number of members
approached one hundred [6]. This evoked the idea to try to limit the number of
members to 100, and in the 1750s, the Academy became more restrictive when it
came to electing new members. In 1762, it was finally decided to limit the number
of members to 100 [7]. After the death of three members, industrialist Jonas
Alströmer (1685–1761), officer and politician Mattias Alexander von Ungern
Sternberg (1689–1763), and officer and physicist Sven Ljungenstierna (1717–
1763), there was an opening for election of a new member and on May 4, 1763,
Wargentin suggested that the vacancy should be filled by electing Bergman as a
member of the Academy. By suggesting Bergman, Wargentin strengthened the
group of young experimental physicist who were fighting for influence. In 1764,
Bergman was elected a member of the Royal Academy of Sciences and took his
seat on May 23, aged 29. On this occasion, he gave an inaugural lecture On the
Possibility to Circumvent the Damaging Effects of Lightning. The lecture was
subsequently printed as a 103 pages long booklet including a copper plate (Fig. 6.4)
[8]. Of these 103 pages, Bergman’s lecture makes up the first 27 pages. It is
followed by a two pages long answer from the Secretary of the Academy, Wargentin, and a 73 pages long appendix. As electricity was his main topic of research
at the time (Sect. 5.2), and research on lightings had been conducted at the observatory of Uppsala at least since 1753, [9] the choice of topic was by no means
accidental. It proved Bergman’s role as an individual thinker and showed that he
could turn physics into practical and useful ideas from which the Academy and the
society could benefit. Lightings had been the topic of several papers in the Academy’s Transactions and a dissertation by the professor of chemistry, Wallerius
titled “Chemical Remarks on the Lightning Strike at the Royal Castle of Uppsala”,
[10] so Bergman could expect considerable interest from the audience.
Bergman’s work on lightning conductors was ahead of its time in Sweden. When
Bergman held his lecture, there was not a single lightning conductor installed in
Scandinavia, Germany or France and possibly two or three in England [11]. They
were more common in America, the home of their inventor, Benjamin Franklin. In
Europe, two major factors contributed to the scepticism towards lightning conductors [12]. A misconception, possibly fuelled by the death in 1753 of Richman, a
scientist in St Petersburg, lead people to believe that a lightning conductor could
attract the lightning and thus actually possess a danger. Another factor was the
strong opposition from French physicist Jean-Antoine Nollet (1700–1770) who had
a very strong influence on electrical research in Europe. He was a strong advocate
of the two-fluid theory of electricity and a strong opponent to the ideas of Franklin.
Nollet said that a metal rod could provide as small means of conducting away the
electricity from a cloud covering a whole city, as a thin pipe could provide protection from a flooding river. Bergman said in his lecture that this argument was
78
6 Bergman, Scheele and the Royal Academy of Sciences
of Sciences
Initially, the Royal Academy had no limit of the number of members in contrast to
most other scientific societies, and by the late 1740s the number of members
approached one hundred [6]. This evoked the idea to try to limit the number of
members to 100, and in the 1750s, the Academy became more restrictive when it
came to electing new members. In 1762, it was finally decided to limit the number
of members to 100 [7]. After the death of three members, industrialist Jonas
Alströmer (1685–1761), officer and politician Mattias Alexander von Ungern
Sternberg (1689–1763), and officer and physicist Sven Ljungenstierna (1717–
1763), there was an opening for election of a new member and on May 4, 1763,
Wargentin suggested that the vacancy should be filled by electing Bergman as a
member of the Academy. By suggesting Bergman, Wargentin strengthened the
group of young experimental physicist who were fighting for influence. In 1764,
Bergman was elected a member of the Royal Academy of Sciences and took his
seat on May 23, aged 29. On this occasion, he gave an inaugural lecture On the
Possibility to Circumvent the Damaging Effects of Lightning. The lecture was
subsequently printed as a 103 pages long booklet including a copper plate (Fig. 6.4)
[8]. Of these 103 pages, Bergman’s lecture makes up the first 27 pages. It is
followed by a two pages long answer from the Secretary of the Academy, Wargentin, and a 73 pages long appendix. As electricity was his main topic of research
at the time (Sect. 5.2), and research on lightings had been conducted at the observatory of Uppsala at least since 1753, [9] the choice of topic was by no means
accidental. It proved Bergman’s role as an individual thinker and showed that he
could turn physics into practical and useful ideas from which the Academy and the
society could benefit. Lightings had been the topic of several papers in the Academy’s Transactions and a dissertation by the professor of chemistry, Wallerius
titled “Chemical Remarks on the Lightning Strike at the Royal Castle of Uppsala”,
[10] so Bergman could expect considerable interest from the audience.
Bergman’s work on lightning conductors was ahead of its time in Sweden. When
Bergman held his lecture, there was not a single lightning conductor installed in
Scandinavia, Germany or France and possibly two or three in England [11]. They
were more common in America, the home of their inventor, Benjamin Franklin. In
Europe, two major factors contributed to the scepticism towards lightning conductors [12]. A misconception, possibly fuelled by the death in 1753 of Richman, a
scientist in St Petersburg, lead people to believe that a lightning conductor could
attract the lightning and thus actually possess a danger. Another factor was the
strong opposition from French physicist Jean-Antoine Nollet (1700–1770) who had
a very strong influence on electrical research in Europe. He was a strong advocate
of the two-fluid theory of electricity and a strong opponent to the ideas of Franklin.
Nollet said that a metal rod could provide as small means of conducting away the
electricity from a cloud covering a whole city, as a thin pipe could provide protection from a flooding river. Bergman said in his lecture that this argument was
78
6 Bergman, Scheele and the Royal Academy of Sciences