In 1836, inside a remote Somerset laboratory, Andrew Crosse watched tiny, living creatures emerge from an electrified stone submerged in chemical solution. The strange organisms looked like mites—and their sudden appearance quickly sparked rumors that Crosse had created life itself. Newspapers branded him a blasphemer, while scientists argued over contamination, mineral growth, and spontaneous generation. Crosse never claimed to have made life, but the mystery surrounding his experiment—and the furious reaction it provoked—has kept his “electric mites” alive in the history of science.
Andrew Crosse was a 19th-century man with enough monetary means to afford to spend time at his hobby of dabbling in scientific experimentation involving electricity. Actually, it was more of an obsession than a hobby.
He built a state-of-the-art laboratory at his English countryside house and read up on similar research going on around the world.
Results Were Not What Andrew Crosse Expected
In 1836, Crosse began an experiment to see if he could grow crystals via a weak electric current. He set up his experiment, which consisted of lava stone, a chemical mixture, and an electrical source, and prepared to wait. Days went by without results and Crosse was starting to become discouraged. However, 28 days after the experiment began, he noticed something unexpected. In the liquid of the experiment, instead of crystals, were numerous insects, all resembling some kind of mite or tiny flea.
He naturally presumed that the stone or liquid utilized in the experiment had been the home of microscopic insect eggs. The electrical stimulation must have caused the eggs to hatch. Oddly, though, no eggs had been seen originally, and no shells were to be seen after the insects appeared. Containers of the same chemical liquid source showed neither insects nor eggs.
Curious, Andrew Crosse replicated the experiment using sealed containers to prevent contamination from the outside. And he was rewarded with the same result: insects easily discernable in the experiment’s containers.
