- Table View
- List View
Emotional Engineering Volume 4
by Shuichi FukudaThis book describes the important role of emotion in a hyper-connected society and how product development and manufacture change. It explores how our work and lifestyle may be affected by forthcoming technologies and presents key research on multisensory informatics, one of the most important tools for making the most of emotion. This fourth volume of the Emotional Engineering Series focuses on the human issues relating to Cyber Physical Systems, or Industrie 4. 0, and discusses the important role emotion plays in these smart environments. Introducing related works in the field of multisensory research, which provide the basic tools for becoming context- and situation aware in this imminent revolutionary society, it discusses not only the changes in production and product development this new revolution will bring about, but also highlights how emotion plays a crucial role in making us happy in such a connected society and in bringing about harmonization between human and human, between human and machine and, last but not least, in maintaining a good work-life balance.
Emotional Feedback for Mobile Devices
by Julia SeebodeThis book investigates the functional adequacy as well as the affective impression made by feedback messages on mobile devices. It presents an easily adoptable experimental setup to examine context effects on various feedback messages and applies it to auditory, tactile and auditory-tactile feedback messages. This approach provides insights into the relationship between the affective impression and functional applicability of these messages as well as an understanding of the influence of unimodal components on the perception of multimodal feedback messages. The developed paradigm can also be extended to investigate other aspects of context and used to investigate feedback messages in modalities other than those presented. The book uses questionnaires implemented on a Smartphone, which can easily be adopted for field studies to broaden the scope even wider. Finally, the book offers guidelines for the design of system feedback.
Emotional Intelligence and Neuro-Linguistic Programming: New Insights for Managers and Engineers (Manufacturing Design and Technology)
The development of a new book about Emotional Intelligence (EI) and Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) and the challenges to managers and engineers is essential because it introduces new lines of research in management and production. The use of EI and NLP allows management to take a more strategic role in organisations. There is a growing importance of sophisticated analysis for managers to support decision making, to use emotional information in order to guide thinking and behaviour, as well as to manage emotions to adapt environments and achieve the organisation's goals. This book addresses several dimensions of EI and NLP and its impact in business and organisation competitiveness. Features Focuses on the latest research findings that are occurring in this field all over the world Shows in what ways companies around the world are facing today's EI and NLP challenges Presents knowledge and insights on an international scale Assists researchers and practitioners in selecting among the different options and strategies, the more relevant priorities to managing competitive organisations Offers the latest developments in the field and of forthcoming international studies
Emotions and Personality in Personalized Services
by Marko Tkalčič Berardina De Carolis Marco De Gemmis Ante Odić Andrej KoširPersonalization is ubiquitous from search engines to online-shopping websites helping us find content more efficiently and this book focuses on the key developments that are shaping our daily online experiences. With advances in the detection of end users' emotions, personality, sentiment and social signals, researchers and practitioners now have the tools to build a new generation of personalized systems that will really understand the user's state and deliver the right content. With leading experts from a vast array of domains from user modeling, mobile sensing and information retrieval to artificial intelligence, human-computer interaction (HCI) social computing and psychology, a broad spectrum of topics are covered. From discussing psychological theoretical models and exploring state-of-the-art methods for acquiring emotions and personality in an unobtrusive way, as well as describing how these concepts can be used to improve various aspects of the personalization process and chapters that discuss evaluation and privacy issues. Emotions and Personality in Personalized Systems will help aid researchers and practitioners develop and evaluate user-centric personalization systems that take into account the factors that have a tremendous impact on our decision-making - emotions and personality.
Emotions, Technology, and Digital Games (Emotions and Technology)
by Sharon Tettegah Wen-Hao HuangEmotions, Technology, and Digital Games explores the need for people to experience enjoyment, excitement, anxiety, anger, frustration, and many other emotions. The book provides essential information on why it is necessary to have a greater understanding of the power these emotions have on players, and how they affect players during, and after, a game. <p><p> This book takes this understanding and shows how it can be used in practical ways, including the design of video games for teaching and learning, creating tools to measure social and emotional development of children, determining how empathy-related thought processes affect ethical decision-making, and examining how the fictional world of game play can influence and shape real-life experiences. <p><p> • Details how games affect emotions—both during and after play <p>• Describes how we can manage a player’s affective reactions <p>• Applies the emotional affect to making games more immersive <p>• Examines game-based learning and education <p>• Identifies which components of online games support socio-emotional development <p>• Discusses the impact of game-based emotions beyond the context of games
The Emperor of Scent: A True Story of Perfume and Obsession
by Chandler BurrThe Emperor of Scent tells of the scientific maverick Luca Turin, a connoisseur and something of an aesthete who wrote a bestselling perfume guide and bandied about an outrageous new theory on the human sense of smell. Drawing on cutting-edge work in biology, chemistry, and physics, Turin used his obsession with perfume and his eerie gift for smell to turn the cloistered worlds of the smell business and science upside down, leading to a solution to the last great mystery of the senses: how the nose works.
Empfehlung Oberflächennahe Geothermie: Planung, Bau, Betrieb und Überwachung - EA Geothermie
by AaaThe aim of the Recommendations is the technically correct exploitation of the subsoil for geothermal purposes. It should be of assistance in avoiding impairment of soil and groundwater during the operation of the plant and buildings.
Empfehlungen des Arbeitsausschusses "Ufereinfassungen" Häfen und Wasserstraßen EAU 2020
by HTGDie 12. Auflage der "EAU 2020" beinhaltet eine inhaltliche Straffung und Neustrukturierung der Empfehlungen mit dem Ziel einer verbesserten und verständlicheren Kapitelstruktur. Außerdem wurden die seit dem Erscheinen der 11. Ausgabe der Empfehlungen des Arbeitsausschusses "Ufereinfassungen" veröffentlichten Technischen Jahresberichte in die Empfehlungen eingearbeitet. Die Empfehlungen berücksichtigen weiterhin die neue Normengeneration, bestehend aus Eurocode 7, zugehörigen nationalen Anwendungsdokumenten und ergänzenden nationalen Regelungen (DIN 1054:2010). In Einzelfällen werden Teilsicherheitsbeiwerte aufgrund von Praxiserfahrungen abweichend festgelegt. Der Sicherheitsstandard der See- und Hafenbauwerke bleibt somit erhalten, die Empfehlungen genügen weiterhin dem Anspruch auf internationale Anerkennung und Anwendung bei Planung, Entwurf, Ausschreibung, Vergabe, Baudurchführung und Überwachung sowie bei Abnahme und Abrechnung von Hafen- und Wasserstraßenanlagen nach einheitlichen Gesichtspunkten.
Empfehlungen des Arbeitskreises "Baugruben" (EAB)
by Deutschen Gesellschaft für Geotechnik e. V.Mit der Herausgabe der Empfehlungen, die normenähnlichen Charakter haben, unterstützt der Arbeitskreis "Baugruben" der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Geotechnik e.V. (DGGT) die Planungspraxis bei Entwurf und Berechnung von Baugrubenumschließungen. Alle Empfehlungen wurden gegenüber der vorherigen 5. Auflage gründlich überprüft, soweit erforderlich überarbeitet und an neue Erkenntnisse angepasst. Wesentlich geändert wurden die Erfahrungswerte für Mantelreibung und Spitzendruck von Spundwänden und Trägerbohlwänden. Das Kapitel "Baugruben in weichen Böden" konnte erheblich gestrafft werden. Einem dringenden Bedürfnis der Praxis folgend wurde zudem ein völlig neues Kapitel "Unterfangungen" als Baugrubensicherung erarbeitet. Die Empfehlungen des Arbeitskreises "Baugruben" sollen helfen, - Entwurf und Berechnung von Baugrubenumschließungen zu erleichtern, - Lastansätze und Berechnungsverfahren zu vereinheitlichen, - die Standsicherheit der Baugrubenkonstruktionen und ihrer Einzelteile sicherzustellen und - die Wirtschaftlichkeit der Baugrubenkonstruktionen zu verbessern.
Empfehlungen des Arbeitskreises "Baugruben" (EAB)
by EabMit der Herausgabe der Empfehlungen, die normenähnlichen Charakter haben, unterstützt der Arbeitskreis „Baugruben“ der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Geotechnik e.V. (DGGT) die Planungspraxis bei Entwurf und Berechnung von Baugrubenumschließungen. Zur bauaufsichtlichen Einführung der Eurocodes wurde eine Anpassung der 4. Aufl age der Empfehlungen an die Vorgaben der DIN EN 1997-1:2009 in Verbindung mit dem Nationalen Anhang DIN 1997-1/NA:2010-12 und den ergänzenden Regelungen der DIN 1054:2010-12 erforderlich. Alle Empfehlungen wurden gründlich überprüft, soweit erforderlich überarbeitet und an neue Erkenntnisse angepasst. Wesentlich überarbeitet wurde Kapitel 10 „Baugruben im Wasser“. Aufgrund der fortgeschrittenen Entwicklung in der Messtechnik und den gestiegenen Anforderungen wurde Kapitel 14 „Messtechnische Überprüfung und Überwachung von Baugrubenkonstruktionen“ völlig neu formuliert. Die Empfehlungen des Arbeitskreises „Baugruben“ sollen helfen, • Entwurf und Berechnung von Baugrubenumschließungen zu erleichtern, • Lastansätze und Berechnungsverfahren zu vereinheitlichen, • die Standsicherheit der Baugrubenkonstruktionen und ihrer Einzelteile sicherzustellen und • die Wirtschaftlichkeit der Baugrubenkonstruktionen zu verbessern.
Empfehlungen des Arbeitskreises "Baugrunddynamik"
by Deutschen Gesellschaft Füx Geotechnik E. V.Die in dem Sammelband "Empfehlungen des Arbeitskreises 1.4 Baugrunddynamik" der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Geotechnik e.V. (DGGT) zusammengefassten Empfehlungen haben das Ziel, das Vorgehen bei baugrunddynamischen Aufgaben zu vereinheitlichen. Ferner geben Sie Hinweise, wie durch angemessene baugrunddynamische Untersuchungen die Beeinträchtigung von Einrichtungen, Schäden an Bauwerken und Anlagen sowie störende Umwelteinwirkungen auf Menschen und Geräte vermieden werden können. Die vorliegenden Empfehlungen stellen den neuesten Stand von Wissenschaft und Technik auf dem Gebiet der Baugrunddynamik dar. Sie beruhen auf gesicherten Erkenntnissen, die einen empirischen Nachweis einschließen, d. h. es liegen für diese Empfehlungen auch praktische Erprobungen vor. Sie sind daher Bestandteil der "allgemein anerkannten Regeln der Technik". Für die vorliegende zweite Ausgabe wurden die Empfehlungen erneut umfangreich überarbeitet und um zwei Teile ergänzt.
Empfehlungen des Arbeitskreises Geomesstechnik
by Deutsche Gesellschaft für GeotechnikMesstechnische Überwachungen von Bauprojekten haben in den letzten Jahren hinsichtlich Methoden und Techniken eine intensive Weiterentwicklung durchlaufen. Die Geomesstechnik, als interdisziplinäres Zusammenwirken von Geotechnik und Ingenieurgeodäsie, trägt in zunehmendem Maß zur Lösung geotechnischer Fragestellungen mithilfe messtechnischer Methoden bei. In der Baupraxis sind geotechnische und geodätische Überwachungsmessverfahren in vielfacher Weise zusammengewachsen und auch die normativen Regelungen, zum Beispiel zur Beobachtungsmethode und dem Qualitätsmanagement, haben zur wachsenden Bedeutung der Geomesstechnik beigetragen. Den Grundüberlegungen zur Geomesstechnik und zur Zielsetzung geotechnischer Messungen entsprechend folgt der Aufbau dieser Empfehlungen dem strukturiert sinnvollen Vorgehen des Planungsprozesses bei einer projektspezifischen Messaufgabe: Ausgehend von Überlegungen zu den zu erfassenden Messgrößen und den zur Erfassung dieser Messgrößen einzusetzenden Messsystemen und -verfahren werden das Datenmanagement, also Aspekte der Datenerfassung, -übertragung und -sicherung sowie die Datenauswertung, also der Prozess der Datenaufbereitung, -analyse und Visualisierung behandelt. Die grundsätzlichen bzw. anwendungsspezifischen Empfehlungen zur Erstellung von Messprogrammen werden durch Fallbeispiele, die best practice-Anwendungen zeigen, verdeutlicht. Auch Aspekte der Qualitätssicherung sowie vertragliche Rahmenbedingungen werden angesprochen. In der Summe bekommt damit der Anwender einen Leitfaden an die Hand, der alle wesentlichen Aspekte der Geomesstechnik nach dem Stand der Technik im Detail behandelt.
Empfehlungen des Arbeitskreises "Numerik in der Geotechnik" - EANG
by Deutsche GesellThe book collects almost all the recommendations issued so far by the DGGT working group "Numerical analysis in geotechnology" in one work. For the collected publication, the recommendations have been matched, updated and in many aspects supplemented and completed.
Empfehlungen des Arbeitskreises Versuchstechnik Fels
by Deutsche Gesellschaft für GeotechnikDer Arbeitskreis AK 3.3 "Versuchstechnik Fels" der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Geotechnik e. V. erarbeitet Empfehlungen für felsmechanische Labor- und Feldversuche sowie Messungen im Gebirge und an geotechnischen Bauwerken. Das vorliegende Buch fasst die bisher erschienenen 25 Empfehlungen des Arbeitskreises zusammen und bietet damit eine Arbeitshilfe für alle, die sich mit der Beprobung, Versuchsdurchführung, Auswertung und Interpretation der Eigenschaften von Festgesteinen befassen.
Empfehlungen für den Entwurf und die Berechnung von Erdkörpern mit Bewehrungen aus Geokunststoffen (EBGEO)
by Herausgegeben Von Der Deutschen Gesellschaft für GeotechnikThe Recommendations deal with the basics of performing verifications and the application of geotextiles for the reinforcement of various foundation systems and ground improvement measures, in road construction, for slopes and retaining structures and in landfill operation.
Empfehlungen zu Dichtungssystemen im Tunnelbau EAG-EDT
by Deutsche Gesellschaft für GeowissenDie Empfehlungen dokumentieren den Stand der Technik in der Bemessung, Auswahl, Anwendung und Prüfung von Geokunststoffen im Tunnelbau und sind vom Arbeitskreis AK 5.1 "Kunststoffe in der Geotechnik und im Wasserbau" der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Geotechnik e.V. (DGGT) erstellt worden.Das Buch behandelt Dichtungssysteme mit Kunststoffdichtungsbahnen für Tunnel in geschlossener und offener Bauweise sowie für sonstige unterirdische Bauwerke und dient als Leitfaden für Bauherren, Planer und Ausführende. Entwicklungen in relevanten Regelwerken und Normen, Projekterfahrungen sowie Weiterentwicklungen und anwendungsbezogene Forschungserkenntnisse seit Erscheinen der ersten Auflage im Jahr 2005 wurden in diese 2. Auflage der "Empfehlungen zu Dichtungssystemen im Tunnelbau EAG-EDT" eingearbeitet. Fallbeispiele ergänzen die Ausführungen.
Empire, Colonialism, and the Human Sciences: Troubling Encounters in the Americas and Pacific
by Adam Warren Julia E. Rodriguez Stephen T. CasperIn this bold reconsideration of the human sciences, an interdisciplinary team employ an expanded theoretical and geographical critical lens centering the notion of the encounter. Drawing insights from Indigenous and Latin American Studies, nine case studies delve into the dynamics of encounters between researchers, intermediaries, and research subjects in imperial and colonial contexts across the Americas and Pacific. Essays explore ethical considerations and knowledge production practices that prevailed in field and expedition science, custodial institutions, and governance debates. They reevaluate how individuals and communities subjected to research projects embraced, critiqued, or subverted them. Often, research subjects expressed their own aspirations, asserted sovereignty or autonomy, and exercised forms of power through interactions or acts of refusal. This book signals the transformative potential of Indigenous Studies and Latin American Studies for shaping future scholarship on the history of the human sciences. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.
An Empire of Ice: Scott, Shackleton, and the Heroic Age of Antarctic Science (Playaway Adult Nonfiction Ser.)
by Edward J. LarsonA Pulitzer Prize–winning author examines South Pole expeditions, &“wrapping the science in plenty of dangerous drama to keep readers engaged&” (Booklist). An Empire of Ice presents a fascinating new take on Antarctic exploration—placing the famed voyages of Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen, his British rivals Robert Scott and Ernest Shackleton, and others in a larger scientific, social, and geopolitical context. Recounting the Antarctic expeditions of the early twentieth century, the author reveals the British efforts for what they actually were: massive scientific enterprises in which reaching the South Pole was but a spectacular sideshow. By focusing on the larger purpose of these legendary adventures, Edward J. Larson deepens our appreciation of the explorers&’ achievements, shares little-known stories, and shows what the Heroic Age of Antarctic discovery was really about. &“Rather than recounting the story of the race to the pole chronologically, Larson concentrates on various scientific disciplines (like meteorology, glaciology and paleontology) and elucidates the advances made by the polar explorers . . . Covers a lot of ground—science, politics, history, adventure.&” —The New York Times Book Review
The Empire of Mind
by Michael StrangeloveWhere many critics see the Internet as an instrument of corporate hegemony, Michael Strangelove sees something else: an alternative space inhabited by communities dedicated to anarchic freedom, culture jamming, alternative journalism, and resistance to authoritarian forms of consumer capitalism and globalization. In The Empire of Mind, "Dr. Strangelove," the scholar Canadian Business referred to as the "acknowledged dean of Internet entrepreneurs" and Wired called "the Canadian guru of Internet advertising," presents the compelling argument that the Internet and new digital communication technology actually undermine the power of capital, producing an alternative symbolic economy.Strangelove contends that the Internet breaks with the capitalist logic of commodification and that, while television produces a passive consumer audience, Internet audiences are more active, creative, and subversive. Writers, activists, and artists on the Internet undermine commercial media and its management of consumer behaviour, a behaviour that is challenged by the Web's tendency toward the disintegration of intellectual property rights. Case studies describe the invention of new meaning given to cultural and consumer icons like Barbie and McDonald's and explore how novel modes of online news production alter the representation of the world as it is produced by the mainstream, corporate press.In the course of exploring new media, The Empire of Mind also makes apparent that digital piracy will not be eliminated. The Internet community effectively converts private property into public, thereby presenting serious obstacles for the management of consumer behaviour and significantly eroding brand value. Much to the dismay of the corporate sector, online communities are disinterested in the ethics of private property. In fact, the entire philosophical framework on which capitalism is based is threatened by these alternative means of cultural production.
Empire of the Air: The Men Who Made Radio
by Tom LewisEmpire of the Air is a history of radio in the United States. It tells the almost-unknown story of three American visionaries--scientist Lee de Forest, brilliant recluse Edwin H. Armstrong, and RCA mogul David Sarnoff--whose imagination and dreams turned a hobbyists' toy into radio, launching the modern communication age. It is a tale of pioneers on the frontier of a new technology, of American entrepreneurial spirit, and of the tragic collision between the lone inventor and the large corporation. Court cases would decide whose legacy would reign supreme. A magnificently researched biography of extraordinary men whose achievements changed our lives forever.
Empire of the Air: The Men Who Made Radio
by Tom LewisEmpire of the Air tells the story of three American visionaries—Lee de Forest, Edwin Howard Armstrong, and David Sarnoff—whose imagination and dreams turned a hobbyist's toy into radio, launching the modern communications age. Tom Lewis weaves the story of these men and their achievements into a richly detailed and moving narrative that spans the first half of the twentieth century, a time when the American romance with science and technology was at its peak. Empire of the Air is a tale of pioneers on the frontier of a new technology, of American entrepreneurial spirit, and of the tragic collision between inventor and corporation.
Empire of the Sum: The Rise And Reign Of The Pocket Calculator
by Keith HoustonThe hidden history of the pocket calculator—a device that ushered in modern mathematics, helped build the atomic bomb, and went with us to the moon—and the mathematicians, designers, and inventors who brought it to life. Starting with hands, abacus, and slide rule, humans have always reached for tools to simplify math. Pocket-sized calculators ushered in modern mathematics, helped build the atomic bomb, took us to the bottom of the ocean, and accompanied us to the moon. The pocket calculator changed our world, until it was supplanted by more modern devices that, in a cruel twist of irony, it helped to create. The calculator is dead; long live the calculator. In this witty mathematic and social history, Keith Houston transports readers from the nascent economies of the ancient world to World War II, where a Jewish engineer calculated for his life at Buchenwald, and into the technological arms race that led to the first affordable electronic pocket calculators. At every turn, Houston is a scholarly, affable guide to this global history of invention. Empire of the Sum will appeal to math lovers, history buffs, and anyone seeking to understand our trajectory to the computer age.
Empire of Water: An Environmental and Political History of the New York City Water Supply
by David SollSupplying water to millions is not simply an engineering and logistical challenge. As David Soll shows in his finely observed history of the nation's largest municipal water system, the task of providing water to New Yorkers transformed the natural and built environment of the city, its suburbs, and distant rural watersheds. Almost as soon as New York City completed its first municipal water system in 1842, it began to expand the network, eventually reaching far into the Catskill Mountains, more than one hundred miles from the city. Empire of Water explores the history of New York City's water system from the late nineteenth century to the early twenty-first century, focusing on the geographical, environmental, and political repercussions of the city's search for more water.Soll vividly recounts the profound environmental implications for both city and countryside. Some of the region's most prominent landmarks, such as the High Bridge across the Harlem River, Central Park's Great Lawn, and the Ashokan Reservoir in Ulster County, have their origins in the city's water system. By tracing the evolution of the city's water conservation efforts and watershed management regime, Soll reveals the tremendous shifts in environmental practices and consciousness that occurred during the twentieth century. Few episodes better capture the long-standing upstate-downstate divide in New York than the story of how mountain water came to flow from spigots in Brooklyn and Manhattan.Soll concludes by focusing on the landmark watershed protection agreement signed in 1997 between the city, watershed residents, environmental organizations, and the state and federal governments. After decades of rancor between the city and Catskill residents, the two sides set aside their differences to forge a new model of environmental stewardship. His account of this unlikely environmental success story offers a behind the scenes perspective on the nation's most ambitious and wide-ranging watershed protection program.
Empires of Coal: Fueling China's Entry into the Modern World Order, 1860-1920
by Shellen Xiao WuFrom 1868–1872, German geologist Ferdinand von Richthofen went on an expedition to China. His reports on what he found there would transform Western interest in China from the land of porcelain and tea to a repository of immense coal reserves. By the 1890s, European and American powers and the Qing state and local elites battled for control over the rights to these valuable mineral deposits. As coal went from a useful commodity to the essential fuel of industrialization, this vast natural resource would prove integral to the struggle for political control of China. Geology served both as the handmaiden to European imperialism and the rallying point of Chinese resistance to Western encroachment. In the late nineteenth century both foreign powers and the Chinese viewed control over mineral resources as the key to modernization and industrialization. When the first China Geological Survey began work in the 1910s, conceptions of natural resources had already shifted, and the Qing state expanded its control over mining rights, setting the precedent for the subsequent Republican and People's Republic of China regimes. In Empires of Coal, Shellen Xiao Wu argues that the changes specific to the late Qing were part of global trends in the nineteenth century, when the rise of science and industrialization destabilized global systems and caused widespread unrest and the toppling of ruling regimes around the world.
Empires of Light: Edison, Tesla, Westinghouse, and the Race to Electrify the World
by Jill JonnesIn the final decades of the nineteenth century, three brilliant and visionary titans of America’s Gilded Age—Thomas Edison, Nikola Tesla, and George Westinghouse—battled bitterly as each vied to create a vast and powerful electrical empire. In Empires of Light, historian Jill Jonnes portrays this extraordinary trio and their riveting and ruthless world of cutting-edge science, invention, intrigue, money, death, and hard-eyed Wall Street millionaires. At the heart of the story are Thomas Alva Edison, the nation’s most famous and folksy inventor, creator of the incandescent light bulb and mastermind of the world’s first direct current electrical light networks; the Serbian wizard of invention Nikola Tesla, elegant, highly eccentric, a dreamer who revolutionized the generation and delivery of electricity; and the charismatic George Westinghouse, Pittsburgh inventor and tough corporate entrepreneur, an industrial idealist who in the era of gaslight imagined a world powered by cheap and plentiful electricity and worked heart and soul to create it. Edison struggled to introduce his radical new direct current (DC) technology into the hurly-burly of New York City as Tesla and Westinghouse challenged his dominance with their alternating current (AC), thus setting the stage for one of the eeriest feuds in American corporate history, the War of the Electric Currents. The battlegrounds: Wall Street, the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, Niagara Falls, and, finally, the death chamber—Jonnes takes us on the tense walk down a prison hallway and into the sunlit room where William Kemmler, convicted ax murderer, became the first man to die in the electric chair. Empires of Light is the gripping history of electricity, the “mysterious fluid,” and how the fateful collision of Edison, Tesla, and Westinghouse left the world utterly transformed.