Scientific history of electricity

For ancient Greeks until the end of the 18th entry, the only form of electricity that could be studied under controlled conditions was static electricity, generated by rubbing glass with a fabric such as silk.

Electricity was rediscovered during the Scientific Revolution of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

In 1600, William Gilbert a British natural Philosopher in his book dealing with Earth as a magnet, he used term electricam, a Latin term that would serve as the basis for the English world ‘electricity’, ‘electric’, and ‘electrical’.

In his text, Gilbert tried to separate electricity from magnetism.

Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790), demonstrated with his kite, and key experiment that lightning is an electrical phenomenon, thus proving that electricity exists in nature.

Franklin was internationally recognized for his research on electricity, and through his work, he invented the much needed lightning rod.

Technological applications from batteries and from the new understanding of electrical phenomena they engendered evolved in the early 19th century.

Volta of Italy, Oersted of Denmark, Ohm of Germany, Ampere of France and Faraday of Britain, whose investigations in the early 19th century established sufficient scientific understanding of electricity to suggest practical application.

Thomas Edison put electricity to work. Until Edison perfected the electric lamp in 1879, all light sources came from open flames that created soot, heat and often fire.

Practical applications emerged from the 1830s onwards, on a steadily expanding front. The first was the electric telegraph, powered initially by batteries. Then came arc-lighting, telephone, light bulb and electric motor.
Scientific history of electricity