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Before Franklin started his scientific experimentation, it was thought that electricity consisted of two opposing forces. Franklin showed that electricity consisted of a "common element" which he named "electric fire." Further, electricity was "fluid" like a liquid.
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Thomas Savery patents "the Miners Friend" a machine that pumps water from coal mines; it becomes the first practical machine powered by steam. He later publishes a description of his steam engine in 1702. Denis Papin in 1707 modifies Savery's high-pressure steam pump.
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Alessandro Volta created the first battery, as the result of a professional disagreement with his colleague Galvani. Consisted of two electrodes, one made of zinc and the other copper.
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William Robert Grove evented fuel cells tha produces electricial energy by combining hydrogen and oxygen
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Samuel Morse invented the electric telegraph, a machine that could send messages long distances across wire. It worked by transmitting electrical signals over a wire laid between stations. In addition to helping invent the telegraph, Samuel Morse developed a code that assigned a set of dots and dashes to each letter of the English alphabet and allowed for the simple transmission of complex messages across telegraph lines.
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Thomas Edison invented an incandescent light bulb that could be used for about 40 hours without burning out. He improved his bulbs so that by 1880 his bulbs could be used for 1200 hours.
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The world's first hydroelectric power plant began operation on the Fox River in Appleton, Wisconsin. The plant, later named the Appleton Edison Light Company, was initiated by Appleton paper manufacturer H.J. Rogers, who had been inspired by Thomas Edison's plans for an electricity-producing station in New York.
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The first windmill used for the production of electricity was built by Prof James Blyth. Blyth's 10 m high, cloth-sailed wind turbine was installed in the garden of his holiday cottage at Marykirk in Kincardineshire and was used to charge accumulators to power the lighting in the cottage, thus making it the first house in the world to have its electricity supplied by wind power
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French scientist Henry Becquerel observes the production of electricity directly from the sun while experimenting with an electrolytic cell made up of two metal electrodes placed in an electricity-conducting solution.
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Italian scientist Piero Ginori Conti invents the first geothermal electric power plant.
