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600 BCE
Thales
In ancient Greece, Thales discovered that a piece of amber rubbed with fur could pick up small pieces of straw. -
William Gilbert
In London, England, William Gilbert discovered, after a careful experimentation, that other materials could display the attractive properties of amber and that they could also attract objects different from straw. He named these objects similar to amber after the greek word for amber "electrics". -
Thomas Browne
In Norwich, England, Thomas Browne did similar experiments to the ones that Gilbert did and coined the word "electricity". -
Charles Du Fay
In Paris, France, Charles Du Fay found out that almost any objects, excluding metal and fluids, could be turned electric after being subjected to a combination of heating and rubbing. He also discovered that there were two distinct groups of electrics, since when two electrics are placed near each other they would sometimes repel and sometimes attract. Two objects of the same group always repel and two objects of different groups always attract. -
Benjamin Franklin
In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Benjamin Franklin supposed that there is a substance that is common to all things (he called it the "electrical fluid") and if a person rubs a glass tube, the charging causes a flow of the substance, an electrical current, to move from the person to the glass, so both become electrics. Franklin said that an object with an excess of the fluid was positively charged, something lacking the fluid was negatively charged instead. -
Lightning rod
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Electrolysis
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Ohm's law
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Maxwell's equations
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Light bulb
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J.J. Thomson
In Cambridge, England, Thomson discovered that the electrical fluid is made up of small particles, named by George Stoney "electrons".
