While Andy Warhol may have popularized the "everyone will be world-famous for fifteen minutes " meme, it was hardly original. Long before the modern era, newspaper stories often did an excellent job of spreading the kind of stories that could propel obscure individuals to instant fame for a variety of reasons. Though this often involved bizarre mishaps or significant personal achievements, anyone with a strange new talent could frequently capitalize on it to achieve, if not fame and fortune, at least a certain name recognition. For a while, anyway.
And so it was with Angelique Cottin, a.k.a. the "Electric Girl".
Though her exact birth date is not recorded, Angelique's early years seemed unremarkable enough. Growing up as part of a poor farm family in the northwestern French village of La Perrier, she likely had little education aside from the basic schooling that all rural children received at the time. But that all changed on January 15, 1846, at 8 pm in the evening while 14-year-old Angelique was doing her customary weaving with other girls in her village. As reports later describe, the oaken frame on which Angelique was working suddenly began jerking so violently that none of the girls could hold it in place. Alarmed by what was happening, the girls ran off to tell their parents. When the skeptical adults ordered them to resume their spinning, nothing unusual occurred until Angelique sat down as well. Which was when the jerking movement began again.
When the same thing happened on the following morning, villagers accused Angelique of being possessed and insisted that she be taken to the local priest to see if an exorcism was needed. Fortunately, the priest was sensible enough to dismiss the fears of the villagers and decided to observe what was happening directly. Among the strange happenings, he observed was Angelique's chair suddenly jerking away from her whenever she tried to sit down. Also, the very touch of her hand seemed enough to repel the table at which she was sitting. Impressed by what he saw, the priest then referred her to the local physician who, along with the girl's parents, brought Angelique to Paris to be tested scientifically. Among the scientists who agreed to participate was prominent astronomer Francois Arago who arranged for the testing to be carried out at his observatory. There, along with several other savants, Arago conducted different tests which were later included in a report presented to the Paris Academy of Sciences.
The report, which later received international newspaper coverage, made the following conclusions: "1st. It is the left side of the body which appears to acquire this sometimes attractive, but more frequently repulsive property. A sheet of paper, a pen, or any other light body, being placed upon a table, if the young girl approaches her left hand, even before she touches it, the object is driven to a distance as if by a gust of wind. The table itself is overthrown the moment it touches her hand, or even by a thread which she may hold in it. 2nd. This causes instantaneously a strong commotion in her side which draws her towards the table. 3rd. As had been observed, the first day, if she attempted to sit, the seat was thrown far from her with such force that any person occupying it was carried away with it. 4th. One day, a chest upon which three men were seated, was moved in the same manner. Another day, although the chair was held by two very strong men, it was broken in their hands." There were additional points (thirteen in all), but I think you get the idea.
While Arago ruled out magnetism or electricity in trying to explain what was happening during Angelique's demonstration, he eventually concluded that she was somehow generating a new force "unknown to science". Another savant added that "under peculiar conditions, the human organism gives forth a physical power which, without visible instruments, lifts heavy bodies, attracts or repels them, according to a law of polarity, and overturns them." Also, bear in mind that spirit mediums were already gaining considerable popularity across North America and Europe with table-tipping and spirit-rapping being commonly reported during countless seances. Newspapers reporting on Angelique Cottin and the apparent verification of her remarkable powers had no trouble making a connection between her case and assorted spiritualist claims already being made.
Against the advice of the scientists themselves, Angelique's parents, who likely saw their daughter's strange talents as a way of making money, started making arrangements to have her repeat her performance before a paying audience. Before this could happen though, Arago called on the Academy to conduct more stringent testing to determine what was actually happening Responding to Arago's requet, the Academy appointed a formal committee of esteemed scientists to make the investigation. And it was quite a committee. Along with Arago, the other committee members were: Henri Becquerel (a pioneer in radioactivity and a future Nobel laureate), zoologist, and author Isidore Geoffrey Saint-Hilaire, physicist Jacques Babinet, physician Pierre Francois Olive Rayer, and psychiatrist Etienne Pariset.
Conducted at the Jardin des Plantes at Paris' Muséum national d'histoire naturelle (National Museum of Natural History) just days after Angelique's previous test, the tests devised by the appointed committee were specifically intended to rule out any possibility of fraud. This time, however, the Committee was less than impressed by what Angelique could apparently accomplish. About the only real effect, she could demonstrate was having the chair she was trying to sit on being forcibly thrown back as previous witnesses had attested. Unfortunately, the Committee wasn't so easily fooled. As they noted in their final report, "Upon serious suspicions arising as to the manner in which these movements occurred, the committee has decided that they shall be submitted to an attentive examination. It frankly announces that the investigations tended to discover the fact that certain habitual manœuvres hidden in the feet and hands could have produced the observed fact."
Apparently unnerved by Angelique's failure to repeat her previous performance, not to mention the accusation of fraud, her guardians suddenly announced that her powers had failed. Certain that Angelique's powers would return in time, they offered to notify the Academy so they could resume the testing. But, as the Committee noted in their report, "Many days have passed since, yet the committee has received no intelligence. We have learned, however, that Mdlle. Cottin is daily received in drawing-rooms where she repeats her experiments." The report ended with the recommendation that "the communications transmitted to the Academy on the subject of Mdlle. Angélique Cottin should be considered as never having been sent in." Being scientists, they couldn't accuse Angelique of being a fraud but their conclusion came as close to this as they could get.
And, that was pretty much it for the Electric Girl. Months later, Angelique's parents announced that her powers were gone for good and she faded back into complete obscurity. Still, despite the science behind magnetism and electricity becoming better understood, the public fascination with Electric Girls remained as strong as ever. Hence the popular appeal of Lulu Hurst, aka the Georgia Wonder, whose brief career during the 1880s had her amazing audiences with her apparent feats of impressive strength (using powers gained during an electrical storm, according to her publicity agents). Though Hurst would later admit that all of her stunts were due to basic physics, she claimed that her powers were genuine at the time. Despite Hurst's popularity inspiring various copycats, none would ever match her popularity, or Angelique Cottin's, for that matter...
While children claiming mysterious powers don't attract the attention they once did given our more skeptical age, instant celebrities seem more common than ever thanks to the power of social media. Perhaps these instant celebrities should pay closer attention to Angelique Cottin's story and how rapidly that fame can slip away. People are always searching for the Next Big Thing, whether it involves Electric Girls or American Idol winners, and today's marvel becomes yesterday's news much sooner than anyone realizes.
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