ANGELIQUE COTTIN, THE ELECTRIC GIRL

At 14 years of age, Angelique Cotton, from the Normandy region of France, became a sensation amongst her peers and the local townsfolk when poltergeist-like activity began to happen within her vicinity.  Nicknamed the “Electric Girl” witnesses described seeing large tables float across rooms she was in. On one occasion an old metal weaving loom and frame 'danced' across a floor in her presence. Chairs would shoot across the room when she tried to sit, and beds would drag across the floor.

 When she lifted her left hand as if on command, pens and papers would shoot across the table.

Anyone getting close to Angelique would also receive a painful electric shock, making her already odd life a lonely one, not being to experience the touch of friends and family.

It wasn't uncommon for Angelique to suffer from fits or convulsions, and writhe and twist in pain and agony, which led her family to visit the local priest and ask for an exorcism.

 The Father convinced the family the strange goings-on were not of the spiritual world, nor demons, but of the physical world, and most likely had a plausible explanation.

 Angelique was then taken to Paris to be studied by the finest doctors and scientists the city could muster, which led to the famous physicist Francois Arago examining the child. Arago declared that the effects on the young Angelique were a genuine physical world phenomenon caused by electromagnetism.

Angelique's parents were then convinced to make money from Angelique's condition and offered her a sideshow exhibit. Then just as suddenly as her electromagnetic powers had appeared, they abruptly stopped in April 1846, and young Angelique returned to a normal life.

written by Allen Tiller