WIEDZA O ELEKTRYCZNOŚCI W PIERWSZYCH POLSKICH PODRĘCZNIKACH FIZYKI

First Polish books on the subject of electricity were published in the 70s of the 18th century. Among them were a guidebook on the installation of lightning conductors by Józef Osiński in 1784 and a physics textbook of 1777, whose extended edition was issued in 1801 (volume 1) and in 1803 (volume 2). Moreover, in the times of the reign of Stanislaus II, Polish physics textbooks appeared: by Samuel Chrościkowski (1764), Józef Rogaliński (4 volumes in the years 1765–1776), Józef Lisikiewicz (two volumes in the years 1779 and 1781), and by Jan Michał Hube (1783 and 1792). In his work the author analyses the state of knowledge at that time concerning the nature of electricity, static electricity, magnetism, lightning discharge, earth charge, conductors and insulators, influence of electricity on living organisms, aurora borealis, as well as evolution of this knowledge at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries and its evaluation from today’s perspective.