ELECTRIC UNIVERSE

How electricity switched on the modern world

By David Bodanis

Mr. Ampere, Mr. Volta, and Mr. Watt, are the central to this story of electricity and power, giving there names for the way it is measured. It was Mr. Andre Marie Ampere, who first noticed that an electric current created a magnetic field, Alessandro Volta , who harnessed this discovery in batteries and James Watt, "the patron saint of electric bills", who needed to sell the idea of steam engine to industrialists and came up with the idea of horse power or wattage. In the twentieth century Robert Watson Watt built on his ancestor's discoveries in his development of radar, and one of the most fascinating chapters of this gripping narrative is the story of the British raid on Bruneval to capture the German Wurzberg radar installation, involving the heroic amateur radio operator Sergeant Cox whose job it was to dismantle the Wurzberg with the assistance of a band of commandoes. That story is well known, but its aftermath is somber: When bomber Harris realized how radar worked he used the counter radar "chaff" effect to disguise the raid on Hamburg with huge loss of civilian life. That story of Alan Turing and his conception of a computer during his years at Bletchley Park is also sympathetically told. "The stories are as much about religion, love and cheating as they are about science and technology ", says the author.

It makes a wonderful mix.