To most people, the most common name that comes to mind when considering who discovered electricity is Benjamin Franklin. In actual fact, while his work was far more extensive than previous scientists, the records of observations about electricity go much further back. The Ancient Egyptians made references to the 'Thunderer of the Nile', the electric fish. These fish were reported millennia later by the Ancient Greeks. Writers mentioned numbing effects felt from electric shocks given by fish and patients who suffered with gout or headaches were advised to touch them for a jolt. The earliest identification of lightening can be attributed to the Arabs, who had a word that referred to the 'electric ray'. Ancient Mediterranean cultures knew that by rubbing certain objects, such as rods of amber, against cat's fur would make it attract lighter objects. This lead to Thales of Miletos making a series of observations about static electricity in 600 BC. Some believe that the Pathians may have had knowledge of electroplating, but this is still uncertain.
It wasn't until the start of the 17th century when electricity would make an important appearance in scientific discovery. English scientist William Gilbert carried out a study of electricity and magnetism and distinguished the lodestone effect from static electricity. The term 'electricus' was coined to refer to the property of an object attracting smaller objects after it has been rubbed. The English words 'electric' and 'electricity' were first used in Thomas Browne's 'Pseudodoxia Epidemica' and were followed by works by Robert Boyle, Stephen Grey, Otto van Guericke and C.F du Fay. A century later, Benjamin Franklin made his appearance by proving that lightening is electrical in nature. Later, Michael Faraday formed the foundation of electric motor technology and in the latter part of the 18th century Lugigi Galvani discovered bioelectricity.
It was Benjamin Franklin, who invented electricity. Although some people believe that his invention of electricity by flying kite in a thunderstorm is more like a fictional story than a real scientific breakthrough, however, everyone is unanimous about the fact that his theory at least generated a lot of interest in the scientific community. His theory about the relationship of lightning and static electricity provided the basis for modern electrical technology.
One theory says that ancient Greeks and Parthians had knowledge about static electricity by rubbing objects against fur. The word electricity itself came from a Greek word and it describes myriad of phenomena that result from flow of electric charge and its presence. Many common physical phenomena are also included in it such as lightning, electric currents and electric fields.
Loigi Galvani, Michael Faraday, Ampere and Ohm were some scientists who were inspired by Franklin's theory.
Electricity is the most important base of modern civilization. The word electricity comes from a Greek word "electron" which means "amber". As far back as 600 B.C. the Greeks knew that when amber was rubbed, it became capable of attracting to it light bits of cork or paper. There was no progress in the study of electricity till 1672; in that year Otto Von Guericke produced a more powerful charge of electricity by holding his hand against a ball of spinning Sulphur. Stephen Gray found some substances such as metals, carried electricity from one location to another, in 1729. These metals came to be called "conductors". He also found that others such as glass, sulphur, amber and wax didn't carry electricity. These were called "insulators".
It was a very important step when a Frenchman named du Fay discovered positive and negative charges of electricity in 1733. Benjamin Franklin tried to give an explanation of what electricity was. He thought the method of "electrical fluid". That fluid was nothing but the electrons which were negatively charged.
The most significant developments of electricity started with the invention of the first battery in 1800 by Alessandro Volta. It gave the world its first continuous, reliable source of electric current.
The early nineteenth century produced even more amazing discoveries in the field of electricity, including work made famous by individuals like Werner von Siemens and John Pender. These men created some of the first companies that were created specifically to examine electricity and its potential to make life easier for humanity. Despite the major breakthroughs during the early nineteenth century, they were nothing compared to what was to come. Great minds like Nikola Tesla, Thomas Edison, Samuel Morse, Antonio Meucci, George Westinghouse, and Alexander Graham Bell worked to create some of the most incredible inventions to ever come from the study of electricity. These inventions included, respectively, the induction motor, the light bulb and a method of distributing electrical energy, the long-range telegraph, the telephone, the first electrically powered locomotive, and the founding of the widely successful telephone industry. All of the research and study in the field of electricity finally culminated in the early twentieth century in what is called as the War of the Currents between Edison, Westinghouse, and Tesla. The three men battled for the public support of either direct current (DC) power proposed by Edison and alternating current (AC) proposed by Westinghouse and supported by Tesla. Eventually, it was determined that both types of currents should be used, but in different sectors. Although AC currently dominates, they are both still in use today.
If Edison and Tesla both brought Power Generators to the 1930's Worlds Fair Too display future Electric Homes and Power in general. Which they Did,, one of them displayed a DC Generator & one displayed an Alternating Current Generator,,, the Edison DC model powered 8 mock homes at the Fair that year and Tesla's is still Powering the Entire Globe Today... So which one do you think should B haled as the Jeanious and Father of Alternating Current. Tesla was the Man who was also swindled by some slick Lawyers who stole the work from him I still have not seen the Movie that was made about him ( Nicoli Tesla ) but soon I'll see it.. He was also sharp enough to never Marry a Female Thief as I foolishly Did...
From the writings of Thales of Miletus it appears that Westerners knew as long ago as 600 B.C. that amber becomes charged by rubbing. There was little real progress until the English scientist William Gilbert in 1600 described the electrification of many substances and coined the term electricity from the Greek word for amber. As a result, Gilbert is called the father of modern electricity. In 1660 Otto von Guericke invented a crude machine for producing static electricity. It was a ball of sulfur, rotated by a crank with one hand and rubbed with the other. Successors, such as Francis Hauksbee, made improvements that provided experimenters with a ready source of static electricity. Today's highly developed descendant of these early machines is the Van de Graaf generator, which is sometimes used as a particle accelerator. Robert Boyle realized that attraction and repulsion were mutual and that electric force was transmitted through a vacuum. Stephen Gray distinguished between conductors and non-conductors. C. F. Du Fay recognized two kinds of electricity, which Benjamin Franklin and Ebenezer Kinnersley of Philadelphia later named positive and negative.
Progress quickened after the Leyden jar was invented in 1745 by Pieter van Musschenbroek. The Leyden jar stored static electricity, which could be discharged all at once. In 1747 William Watson discharged a Leyden jar through a circuit, and comprehension of the current and circuit started a new field of experimentation. Henry Cavendish, by measuring the conductivity of materials (he compared the simultaneous shocks he received by discharging Leyden jars through the materials), and Charles A. Coulomb, by expressing mathematically the attraction of electrified bodies, began the quantitative study of electricity.
A new interest in current began with the invention of the battery. Luigi Galvani had noticed (1786) that a discharge of static electricity made a frog's leg jerk. Consequent experimentation produced what was a simple electron cell using the fluids of the leg as an electrolyte and the muscle as a circuit and indicator. Galvani thought the leg supplied electricity, but Alessandro Volta thought otherwise, and he built the voltaic pile, an early type of battery, as proof. Continuous current from batteries smoothed the way for the discovery of G. S. Ohm's law, relating current, voltage (electromotive force), and resistance, and of J. P. Joule's law of electrical heating. Ohm's law and the rules discovered later by G. R. Kirchhoff regarding the sum of the currents and the sum of the voltages in a circuit are the basic means of making circuit calculations.
In 1819 Hans Christian Oersted discovered that a magnetic field surrounds a current-carrying wire. Within two years André Marie Ampère had put several electromagnetic laws into mathematical form, D. F. Arago had invented the electromagnet, and Michael Faraday had devised a crude form of electric motor. Practical application of a motor had to wait 10 years, however, until Faraday (and earlier, independently, Joseph Henry) invented the electric generator with which to power the motor. A year after Faraday's laboratory approximation of the generator, Hippolyte Pixii constructed a hand-driven model. From then on engineers took over from the scientists, and a slow development followed; the first power stations were built 50 years later.
In 1873 James Clerk Maxwell had started a different path of development with equations that described the electromagnetic field, and he predicted the existence of electromagnetic waves travelling with the speed of light. Heinrich R. Hertz confirmed this prediction experimentally, and Marconi first made use of these waves in developing radio (1895). John Ambrose Fleming invented (1904) the diode rectifier vacuum tube as a detector for the Marconi radio. Three years later Lee De Forest made the diode into an amplifier by adding a third electrode, and electronics had begun. Theoretical understanding became more complete in 1897 with the discovery of the electron by J. J. Thomson. In 1910–11 Ernest R. Rutherford and his assistants learned the distribution of charge within the atom. Robert Millikan measured the charge on a single electron by 1913.
It is not widely known that The Russian scientist, Victor Tesla ( inventor of the Tesla Coil among other great things) was the actual inventor of electricity, not Thomas Edison as is commonly accepted. Only now is this being realized and corrected many years after his death.
There seems to be a misunderstanding here .No one invented electricity It existed from the moment of creation of the universe.Its effects and the means of producing it for human use began to be discovered and understood in the16th Century and we are still learning.
I guess the question is did you go to school because Thomas Edison did not invent Electricity it was invented way before his time. You should do some research before answering a question you do not know.
You all don't know anything it was not invented but discovered by benjamin franklin when he was flying a kite in a lighting storm however the greeks a long time ago actually discovered it way before benjamin
I'm just 11 but I know that electricity was not invented but discovered. The study of electricity began in 600BC. Maybe it was discovered by Thales of Miletus. The early greeks used fur and amber to create static electricity.
How old are you people? Reading these comments is starting to scare me. I am 16 and I know that Benjamin Franklin did not invent electricity or discover it, he proved his hypothesis that lightning is static electricity.
Thomas Edison did not invent electricity, he just made somewhat of a converter to make light energy from electricity flowing through it.
Early man (Ancient Rome, Egypt, etc.) did not invent it either. They knew about it, they just didn't know what to do with it and probably didn't think of it as very important.
My point is that no one invented electricity, it was here ever since the beginning of time, the big bang. I go to public school and am in pretty much normal classes (college prep. Enriched). Just pay attention in school. I don't even study for my Spanish 3 tests and I get 100's. Same with Geometry and Chemistry. KNOWING WHO INVENTED ELECTRICITY IS IMPORTANT! THE RIGHT ANSWER: NO ONE!
Actualy gus... It was not invented it was discovered... Before thousands of year ... But man started to use it.... From the century of 19th... The man made it to know to all is victor tesla born in russia... And the man made it to be utilized is micheal faraday... Inventer of generator
From the writings of Thales of Miletus it appears that Westerners knew as long ago as 600 B.C. That amber becomes charged by rubbing. William Gilbert in 1600 described the electrification of many substances and coined the term electricity from the Greek word for amber. As a result, Gilbert is called the father of modern electricity.
In 1660 Otto von Guericke invented a crude machine for producing static electricity. It was a ball of sulphur, rotated by a crank with one hand and rubbed with the other.
Ben Franklen used a key and a kite in the end he got zapped by the lightning .
Wow peoples Thomas Eison DID NOT invent electricity! He made the first LIGHT BULB! Benjamin Franklin Discovered it! Not reall ancient greeks used static electricity!
Do you really mean "invent", or rather "discover"? There's quite a difference :-) as some have already pointed to. If you did mean to say "invent", it depends on your beliefs: Either God or no one, it came to exist on its own.
Who discovered electricity? I'll have to go with the history books and say Ben Franklin. I wasn't there, so.
Electricity was already invented or should I say discovered before Benjamin Franklin put his key on the string of a kite... He discovered that lighting had a powerful charge, and that building should have lightning stakes attached to protect buildings from lightning strikes...
I believe it was benjamin Franklin who invented electricity and people say it was wen a person was flying a kite and it was struck by lightning its found like statistics
No one invented electricity at least on this planet. They discovered it. One of the stories go that ben franklin tied a key to s kite's tail and flew it into a lightning storm and lightning struck the kite and traveled down the string ...en.wikipedia.org
