The story of electricity

Greece, 600 BCE

600 BCE

Thales of Miletus discovered that a piece of amber can pick up pieces of straw when is rubbed with fur.

London, England 1600

1600

William Gilbert named "electrics" the materials that display the attractive properties of amber and attract objects besides straw.

Norwich, England 1646

1646

Thomas Browne coined the word "electricity" to describe the properties of electric objects.

Paris, France 1736

1736

Charles du Fay discovered that almost any object can be turned electric and that there are two distinct groups of electrics: two objects from the same group repel while a pair of one from each group attract.

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 1748

1748

Benjamin Franklin supposed the existence of a substance that he called "the electrical fluid" common to all things. According to Franklin an object with an excess of this fluid is positively charged and something lacking this fluid is negatively charged.

Franklin's lightning rod

1749

The lightning rod was discovered by Benjamin Franklin.

Electrolysis by Nicholson.

1800

Electrolysis was discovered accidentally by William Nicholson

Ohm's law

1862

Ohm's law is a mathematical formula that describes the correlation of electrical quantities as they vary.

Maxwell's equation

1862

Maxwell's equations are a system of four equations.

Edison's light bulb

1880

Thomas Edison in 1880 registered his patent for the incandescent electric light bulb in the United States.

Cambridge, England 1897

1897

Joseph John Thomson named electrons the small particles that form the electrical fluid.