Abstract
This article argues that overtly theatrical techniques and problems have played a vital part in the design and execution of scientific experiments. Taking as its case-study Michael Faraday's famed experiment debunking the spiritualist phenomenon of table-turning in 1853, attention is focused on the crucial role played by sleight of hand, patter, misdirection and other theatrical tricks in it. Saturated in the wider culture of stage and parlour magic familiar to Victorians, Faraday's experiment into ideomotor activity highlights the many connections running back and forth between the worlds of science and theatre in the mid-nineteenth century, in which performativity and theatricality were not only part of flamboyant scientific demonstrations, but at the heart of experiments themselves.
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