Electric History Timeline
600 B.C."The elusive, invisible mystery of electricity became the subject of specific, recorded inquiry in the dawning days of the Golden Age of ancient Greece.In 600 B.C. Thales, erudite philospher and astronomer... observed the special qualities of the rare yellow orange amber...If rubbed briskly with a cloth, Thales showed amber seemed to come alive causing light objects like feathers, straw or leaves to fly towards it, cling and then gently detach or float away."-Jill Jonnes, Empires of Light: Edison, Tesla, Westinghouse, and the Race to Electrify the World (2003) |
April 8, 1730"The early 1700s had seen the development of devices that could generate a substantial electrical charge, and this enabled widespread research on the mysterious properties of electricity. In addition to other important discoveries, British researcher Stephen Gray determined that living bodies could conduct electricity.In his most famous public experiment, Gray suspended a boy from the ceiling via silk cords and then “electrified” him with a charged glass tube." |
January 1746"Ewald von Kleist and Pieter van Musschenbroek, each working independently...discovered that a glass jar lined with metal foil on both the inside and the outside was capable of holding a significant electric charge. The device came to be called a “Leyden jar” by Van Musschenbroek’s colleagues, since the Dutch scientist was at the time teaching at the University of Leiden."-MIT Libraries Special Collections |
1753Benjamin Franklin finalizes his lightning rod.
“I never before was engaged in any study that so totally engrossed my attention and my time as this has done lately. What with making experiments when I can be alone, and repeating them to my friends and acquaintances, who, from the novelty of the thing, come continually in crowds to see them, I have, during some months past, had leisure for little else."-Benjamin Franklin |
January 26, 1781Luigi Galvini experiments with frog legs, concluding electricity comes from animals.
“I immediately repeated the experiment. I touched the other end of the crural nerve with the point of my scalpel, while my assistant drew sparks from the electrical machine. At each moment when sparks occurred the muscle was seized with convulsions.”-Luigi Galvini |
1800"Building on the work of Luigi Galvini, Alessandro Volta demonstrated in 1800 how one could generate a flow of charge by alternating layers of two kinds of metals with paper soaked in acid. Known as a pile, Volta's layers of metal and acid soaked paper were the first electric battery." |
July 21, 1821"On July 21, 1820, Hans Christian Oersted announced his discovery of electromagnetism...He sent copies of his monograph to every important university., learned society, and electrical scholar in Europe. "-Jill Jonnes, Empires of Light: Edison, Tesla, Westinghouse, and the Race to Electrify the World (2003) |
October 1831Michael Faraday creates the first electric generator and dynamo.
"The needle did not remain deflected but returned to its place each time. The order of motions were inverse.... the indicating needle tended to become parallel with the exciting magnet, being on the same side of the wire and poles of the same name in the same direction."-Michael Faraday |