To Steal Thunder

In 1709, a London writer called John Dennis put on a play, and in doing so he managed to invent something quite special… a new way of producing the sound of thunder. He did this by rolling metal balls around in a wooden bowl.

His play was not successful. It flopped. The theatre closed it after a few nights, but soon after, the same theatre put on Macbeth, and they used his technique to create the sound of thunder. Presumably when the witches were casting their spell.

"When shall we three meet again, in thunder, lightning, or in rain?"First Witch, Macbeth, Act I, Scene I

Who do you think was in the audience? Yes, of course! John Dennis. He witnessed the play and realised what had happened… The story goes that he stood up and shouted: "Damn them! They will not let my play run, but they steal my thunder!"

to steal someone's thunder
to take the praise, attention or credit away from another person by doing or saying what they planned to do first.

Adam Smith's Answer

When someone takes credit for something you did, like an idea you had or a joke you told, it can be disappointing, disheartening or, depending on how good it was, it could sting a little. You know that uncomfortable feeling you get in your heart, like someone has stabbed you with a tiny little fork.

How can we explain this sad little sensation?

Well… fifty years after that fateful night, when an idiom was born, a Scottish professor called Adam Smith came up with an answer. He was known as the "Father of modern economics", but he also had some ideas about human morality. In 1759, he wrote a book called The Theory of Moral Sentiments. It was about how we judge each other, and how we judge ourselves.

Smith recognised that we humans want two things, and we can mix them up. First, we want praise: people telling us that we did well, appreciating us, thanking us. Second, we want to be praiseworthy, which means that we really did the thing that deserves the praise.

"Man naturally desires, not only to be loved, but to be lovely."Adam Smith, The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759)

Lovely in modern English means pleasing, kind or attractive. But a more traditional definition means "worthy of love". Therefore, we don't only want people to clap for us, we want to have earned their applause.

The audience of Macbeth were likely impressed by the thunder that shook the Drury Lane Theatre that night, and applauded the sound of it. Whilst the producers that stole that thunder may have enjoyed the recognition, the plaudits would ultimately have been quite hollow.

Stigler's Law

Now to finish, let's bring this to the modern day. We live in a capitalist world full of inventions and new ideas, where receiving credit for the latest innovation can be a hot topic. One film that I find myself watching every so often is The Social Network (2010), which is based on a story of: "You stole my idea!"

There's a scientific law called Stigler's Law, named after the statistician Stephen Stigler. It says that no scientific discovery is named after the person who first made it. Why? Because the credit usually goes to whoever brings the idea to the public, not whoever had it first. To prove his point, Stigler gave the credit for this law to the sociologist Robert K. Merton.

The Social Network shows the law in action. The Winklevoss twins said Facebook was their idea, and they took Mark Zuckerberg to court. But whose name do we think of when we hear "Facebook"?

Which brings us back to poor John Dennis. I believe he found a loophole in the rule… because he stood up and complained. He not only invented the sound effect for thunder, but he immortalised his invention with a catchy new phrase.

I guess that shows the power of language. I doubt theatres use metal balls to produce the sound of thunder any more, but I bet his words still echo within them.

Perhaps you remember this episode?