author
Charles Grafton Page
1812–1868
A 19th-century American inventor and physician, he helped push early electrical science beyond the laboratory and into practical machines. His experiments with electromagnetism made him a notable figure in the years before large-scale electric power became a reality.
1 Audiobook
Psychomancy: Spirit-Rappings and Table-Tippings Exposed
by Charles Grafton Page
About the author
Born in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1812, Charles Grafton Page studied at Harvard, earning a science degree in 1832 and a medical degree in 1836. He later moved to Washington, D.C., where he practiced medicine, taught, and built a reputation as an energetic experimenter in electricity and magnetism.
Page worked across several fields at once: he was an inventor, a patent examiner and advocate, and a professor of chemistry. He became especially known for his work on electromagnetic induction and for developing early electromagnetic machines, including efforts to apply electric power to transportation.
Although he is not as widely remembered as some later electrical pioneers, his career sits at an important moment in American science, when medicine, invention, and public service often overlapped. His surviving papers, preserved by the Smithsonian, reflect a life spent exploring how new scientific ideas might become useful technology.