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Factual: History

Factual: Science & Nature: Science & Technology

24/06/2015

BBC Radio Scotland - Mad Science

Susan Morrison tells the story of sex guru and electricity experimenter Dr James Graham.

Susan Morrison explores the Enlightenment world of sex guru and electricity experimenter Dr James Graham, who created an electrified Celestial Bed as an aid to conception.

Meet the Enlightenment World's greatest sex guru, Dr James Graham and his amazing electrified Celestial Bed where for the enormous sums, you were supposedly guaranteed to conceive babies. Trained at Edinburgh's world-famous medical school, he bolted for a world of celebrity, spectacle and showmanship. You didn't just turn up at his surgery, you came into an amazing glittering palace of electrical thrones, crystal glass pillars, spark-throwing dragons and wafts of mind-altering substances. Dr Graham reckoned that the little-understood phenomenon of electricity was not just the vital life force of the universe, but the stuff of sex itself. If he could charge you up with it and give you his (sometimes surprisingly useful) life-style advice, all would be well. But how do you keep ahead in an age so obsessed with celebrity and novelty where this season's rage was tomorrow's big yawn? And what happens to your scientific reputation? Comedian and history enthusiast Susan Morrison finds out.

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