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Benjamin went outside with his son in a lightning storm because he hypothesized that lightning was electricity. He flew a kite with a key attached to it and noticed the strings on the kite 'sticking up' so he touched the key and felt the shock of electricity!
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Michael Farady was well known for his discoveries in electromagnetic induction. He invented the first electric motor
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William Hart dug the first natural gas well in 1821 in Fredonia, NY. This well was 27 meters deep and was named after him. The french were noticing that the Native Americans were igniting flame off the ground because natural gas was seeping into it. Later, the Fredonia Gas Light Company opened, becoming the first American natural gas company.
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Joseph Henry designed the first power line to sent electrical currents over a long distance. Telegraph poles were built to help do this.
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Thomas Edison perfected his lightbulb and demonstrated it to the public on December 31, 1879. It was an incandescent lightbulb and it took him 1,000 faulty bulbs to finally create the perfect one.
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James Blyth invented the worlds first windmill used to produce energy. This windmill was horizontal instead of the modern vertical design and it spanned 33 feet in diameter.
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The original plan for the station was to just produce power for the surrounding area but in 1996 they added power lines so they could produce energy for places as far as 20 miles away.
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Russel Ohl is famous for his original patent on the solar energy cell. This allowed and continues to allow us to harvest energy naturally from the sun.
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On May 26th, 1958 the first commercial nuclear plant was opened by the president at the time, Dwight Eisenhower. This was opened as a part of his Atoms of Peace program
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The first windmill farm was built in southern New Hampshire. It consisted of 20 30-kW wind turbines
