The History of Electricity
Feb 19 2010 By Mary Barabe
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The history of electricity is an extremely interesting one that has inspired comment and debate and gasps of amazement. When you think back on what you were taught, names like Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Edison, Joseph Swan and Michael Faraday spring to mind. Here is how electricity evolved over time.
Interestingly, history notes that as early as 600 B.C. electricity was already being discovered. Thales of Miletus noted down his experiments when he rubbed amber and how it became charged when he did so. We know that as static electricity today.
The etymology of the word electricity evolved in the 1600s when the English scientist, William Gilbert, coined the term using the Greek word for amber. He was also the first to use words like electric attraction and magnetic pole. He was closely followed by Otto von Guericke who invented a machine that created static electricity and Robert Boyle who demonstrated electricity working through a vacuum.
The 1700s were rich with electric invention with Stephen Gray’s discovery on the conduction of electricity and Charles Francois du Fay’s establishing the two forms of electricity. His names were resinous and vitreous, known as positive and negative today.
In 1752 Benjamin Franklin undertook his now infamous kite experiment. That experiment could have killed him - he was most fortunate it did not - as he was toying with electricity in a way we now know to be deadly. He attached an iron spike to a kite and held an iron key in his hand, as the lightning flashed a spark jumped from the key to his wrist. Imagine doing something like that today?
Franklin also invented the lightning rod proving that lightning was, in fact, a form of electricity.
In 1792 the Italian scientist Alessandro Volta established that when dampness comes between two different metals it creates electricity. He then developed the first electric battery called the voltaic pile using zinc and copper. He demonstrated that electricity could be moved as a current and forced to travel in a specific direction. As you’ve probably already guessed the Volt is named after Alessandro Volta.
In 1821 Michael Faraday invented the first electric motor. While this may sound rather flat, the man was incredibly talented with discoveries like electromagnetic induction, diamagnetism and the laws of electrolysis. It was his hard work in this arena that led to the prolific use of electricity in technology today.
Shortly after his discovery, in 1837 the first industrial electric motors were produced. This was followed by the creation of the first fuel cells by Sir William Robert Grove in 1839. It was in 1878 that electricity production became the norm with Edison Electric Light Co. And American Electric and Illuminating coming into being.
Soon after the first hydroelectric power station opened in America in 1882 and in 1883 the electric transformer was invented. As you can see, it was the combination of many great minds that helped electricity to evolve over time and it is these minds we have to thank for electricity today.
