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The lightning rod was invented by Benjamin Franklin in 1752. This invention arose from his famous experiment with a kite during a thunderstorm, demonstrating that lightning is a form of electricity that can be attracted and conducted safely to earth. -
The voltaic pile was created by Alessandro Volta and publicly presented in 1800. Volta stacked alternating discs of zinc and copper, separated by cardboard or cloth moistened with a salt water solution or electrolyte, thus creating the first electric battery capable of supplying a constant and continuous electric current. -
Electrolysis is an electrochemical process that decomposes a chemical compound using an electric current, using an electrolyte (an ionic substance in solution or molten form) and two electrodes inside an electrolytic cell. This process, the reverse of that of electric batteries, reverses the spontaneity of a reaction, causing the oxidation of anions at the anode and the reduction of cations at the cathode to separate the elements from the compound. -
Electromagnetism as a field of study emerged in 1820 with Hans Christian Ørsted's discovery of the relationship between electricity and magnetism. However, it was fully and mathematically formulated by James Clerk Maxwell in 1865, consolidating the fundamental laws and principles of the phenomenon. -
The electromagnet was created by British inventor William Sturgeon in 1825, based on the discovery of the magnetic effect of electric currents made by Danish physicist Hans Christian Ørsted in 1819. Sturgeon constructed the first horseshoe-shaped electromagnet, a piece of iron wrapped in a current-carrying wire, capable of lifting iron objects. -
Alternating Current (AC) was created with Hippolyte Pixii's first alternator in 1832, but it was Nikola Tesla who revolutionized the system by developing and patenting the polyphase transformer and motor for large-scale transmission and use in the 1880s, ultimately prevailing over Thomas Edison's direct current in the War of the Currents. -
The electric motor did not have a single inventor or a single date, but was the result of an evolutionary process. Michael Faraday is considered to have created the first primitive motor in 1821, demonstrating the conversion of electrical energy into mechanical energy. However, the first truly practical rotary engine that developed significant power was the work of Prussian scientist Moritz Jacobi in 1834. -
The invention of the commercially viable incandescent light bulb is credited to Thomas Edison, who demonstrated his practical and long-lasting light bulb on October 21, 1879. However, this invention is the result of the work of several inventors who developed the basics of the concept, such as Heinrich Goebel and Joseph Swan, and Edison managed to refine the design to make it viable on a large scale and obtain a patent. -
The first wind turbine for electricity generation was built in 1887 by American scientist Charles F. Brush. Although windmills existed earlier, Brush's invention marked the beginning of wind turbines as we know them today, capable of producing electricity from wind. -
Electronic machines began to be created in the 1940s, with the introduction of Konrad Zuse's Z3 in 1941 and the first high-speed digital computer, the ENIAC, which debuted publicly in 1946. These pioneering devices mark the beginning of the era of electronic computers.