History Of Electricity

History of Electricity


The history of Electricity as it is now known is much older than Ben Franklin. Scientists all over the world have studied it for centuries. In fact, if it were not for Electricity (in the form of lightning) early humans would likely not have discovered fire for a long long time.

The earliest known experiments with electricity were performed by the ancient greeks. Egyptians knew of the electrical discharge of fish even before Greek experimentation began. Greek, Roman and Arabic naturalists all have writings from antiquity on the various species of electric fishes.

Ancient writers including Sribonius and Pliny the Elder reported on how certain species of catfish and torpedo rays delivered electrical shocks and discovered that shocks such as these could travel along conducting objects. Physicians of their time even suggested these shocks as a means to cure various ailments.

Al-Jahiz of midieval egypt made similar observations in Egypt.

The earliest extensive comments on Static Electricity come to us from Thales of Miletus in the 6th century BC. He discovered that if he rubbed fur on various substances such as amber it wwould cause a peculiar attraction between the two objects. Greeks noticed that amber buttons attracted lighter objects like hair and that if one rubbled a piece of amber for long enough one could even make a spark leap from it to one's finger. The word we now use for "electric" actually comes from this extensive Greek toying with amber, the word electic comes from the greek word for amber.

In 1938 artifacts were discovered in Iraq that may have been used in electroplating. This "Baghdad Battery" resembled a galvanic cell. The device dates back to the a couple hundred years AD. No concensus has been formed to prove assertions of what the device may have been used to accomplish. It remains an intriguing article in the history of electricity.

Renaissance

In 1550 Girolamo Cardano distinguised between electrical and magnetic forces in his work De Subtilitate. While English scientist William Gilbert coined the term electricus in his 1600 book entitled De Magnete. Sir Thomas Browne was the first to use the term "electriciy" in his 1646 book entitled Psuedoxia Epidemica. Other early researchers include Robert Boyle, who stated that electric repulsion and attraction can occur across a vacuum; Stephen Gray, classified materials as Conductors and attractors in 1729; and C.F. du Fay who identified different types of electricity that would later be called positive and negative.

18th Century

In 1745 Peter van Musschenbroeck invented the Leyden Jar, a means to store large amounts of electricity. While experimenting with the Leyeden jar William Watson discovered that a discharge of static electricity is the same thing as an electrical current.

Benjamin Franklin is often mistakenly taken to be the primary researcher of electricity. In truth William Watson shares credit for the discovery of electrical potentials. Franklin was in a unique position throughout his life to promote his experiments and ideas. His most famous experiment is flying a kite with a key attached in a thunderstorm. Franklin used this experiment to charges a Leyden jar, thereby proving a link between lightning and electricity. Franklin would later invent the lightening rod.

The basis of modern electrical power lies with Michael Faraday, Luigi Galvani, Andre-Marie Ampere, George Simon Ohm, and Allesandro Volta whose great accomplishments inform a great deal of what we know today about electricity. The volt the ampere and the ohm are all units of measurement named after some of the above people.