Who Discovered Electricity - Article

[Paul W. Abernathy]

Article By : Dianna Bocco

The history of electricity goes back more than two thousand years, to the time the Ancient Greeks discovered that rubbing fur on amber caused an attraction between the two. By the 17th century, many electricity-related discoveries had been made, such as the invention of an early electrostatic generator, the differentiation between positive and negative currents, and the classification of materials as conductors or insulators. In the year 1600, English physician William Gilbert conned the term electric, from the Greek elektron, to identify the force that certain substances exert when rubbed against each other.

While many believe Benjamin Franklin to be the father of electricity, current findings seem to show otherwise. In 1752, Franklin is said to have performed the famous experiment of flying a kite during a thunderstorm, which led to the discovery that lightning and electricity were somehow related. Modern scientists know this to be something of a tall tail, since being hit by lightning would have been fatal. It's likely that Franklin was actually insulated, away from the path of lightning.

The kite experiment helped Franklin establish a relationship between lightning and electricity, which led to the invention of the lightning rod. Benjamin Franklin went on to observe other phenomena related to electricity, but many believe that he didn't actually discover its true nature.

In 1800, Italian-born physicist Alessandro Volta constructed the voltaic pile, later known as the electric battery, the first device to produce a steady electric current. It was Volta, not Franklin, who discovered that certain chemical reactions could produce electricity. Volta also created the first transmission of electricity by linking positively-charged and negatively-charged connectors and driving an electrical charge, or voltage, through them.

It wasn't until 1831 that electricity became viable for use in technology. English scientist Michael Faraday created the electric dynamo, a crude precursor of modern power generators. This invention opened the door to the new era of electricity. A few decades later, in 1879, Thomas Alva Edison invented the light bulb.

[rcooke]

Good simple refresher Thanks Roy

[William E. Siegel]

We have Edison to thank for our modern electrical era. The man was a genious. General Electric is still around today because of him.

[jferry]

Originally Posted by pabernathy

The history of electricity goes back more than two thousand years, to the time the Ancient Greeks discovered that rubbing fur on amber caused an attraction between the two.

I noticed that when I gave my girlfriend, Amber, a fur coat. And only two millennia too late.

[Kenton H. Shepard, CMI]

If you think Edison was a genius, check out his contemporary Nicola Tesla http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikola_Tesla , the inventor of AC current and about 700 other electrical innovations. The only reason more people don't know about him is that he was more interested in electricity than self-promotion. His backers were people like Westinghouse and J. P. Morgan.

[Jeffrey R. Pope]

Thomas Edison takes all the glory even though he promoted the use of direct current. We all know George Westinghouse is the father of alternating current, don't we?

[Greg Fretwell]

Thomas Edison really invented the invention factory and the idea of intellectual property. He hired young bright people and gave them a place to invent things. They signed one of the first IP contracts in the US and everything they invented belonged to Edison. He was really more in the product inspiration, production and marketing end of the business.

[Barry Adair]

here's the codecheck version with the little graphix
i like the graphix and ben in his own words additions
http://www.codecheck.com/pp_elect.html

here's some old edison bulbs i ran into on an inspection that made the front page news earlier this year. http://www.txcn.com/sharedcontent/dw...ss/dayone.html

they were working from 1918 until 2004.

Edisonbulb.JPG (42.7 KB)