激情的时代孕育了异想天开的科学家...

      Jean-Antoine Nollet(1700--1770)曾做过一个大型试验，他在巴黎大教堂前，面对着Louis XV及其他皇室成员，命令700个修道士手拉手地排成一条900英尺长的队伍，一端的人接触带电的莱顿瓶(Leyden jar)的外部，当另一端的人接触莱顿瓶的另一极时，700个修道士全都因电击而跳了起来...

（85版赵凯华 陈曦谋《电磁学》上介绍）

Jean-Antoine Nollet, the Abbot of the Grand Convent of the Carthusians in Paris decided to test his theory that electricity traveled far and fast. He did the natural thing on a fine spring day in 1746, sending 200 of his monks out in a line 1 mile long. Between each pair of monks was a 25-foot iron wire. Once the reverend fathers were properly aligned, Nollet hooked up a battery to the end of the line and noted with satisfaction that all the monks started swearing, contorting, or otherwise reacting simultaneously to the shock. A successful experiment: an electrical signal can travel a mile and it does so quickly. Of course, this is the kind of experiment you can only run once as your monks may prove less-than-cooperative the second time around. So, in another demonstration he discharged a Leyden jar in front of King Louis XV at Versailles by sending current through a chain of 180 Royal Guards. The King was both impressed and amused as the soldiers all jumped simultaneously when the circuit was completed.