The very first idea about electricity came about 2000 years ago. The Greeks discovered that amber rubbed with furs attracts light objects. The reason behind this was still a mystery.
In 1600,
William Gilbert (also regarded as the father of electrical engineering or electricity and magnetism) re-studied the work of Greeks and named it a new field of study “
electricity”, derived from Greek word ‘
amber’.
Not your language? Try the translater here.
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| First Battery "Voltaic Pile" |
In the course of time, many other substances were found that could produce the same effects. In the 17th century, Otto von Guericke experimented on a large sulfur ball which could be rotated with one hand and rubbed with other. It was one of the famous methods to produce electricity and was able to attract pieces of paper and also produced a crackle and minute spark. For the very first time in the history, it was thought that electricity can flow. Electricity was assumed to be a fluid that time. Later the scientists find a way to store electric “fluid” in a Leyden jar (a bottle partly filled with water having a metal chain hanging down through a cork in the bottleneck). This jar is said to be the forerunner of the capacitor.
Later, Benjamin Franklin saw a connection that both, the spikes of the sulfur ball and the light thundering are the flow of electric “
fluid”. He proved it in his famous
Kite experiment. Alessandro Volta's discovery in 1799 marked a turning point in the study of electricity. He made his own electric cell from the plated of copper and zinc in a solution of salt, called "
Voltaic Pile".
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| Franklin's Kite experiment "electric fluid" |
The first effect of electric current was observed was its ability to break electrolyte in its component. In the early 19th century, Carlisle and Nicholson experimented using voltaic pile cell, connected to the platinum wires in tubes containing dilute acid and found bubble rose from wire along with the composition of oxygen and hydrogen.
Until 1820, there was no method to measure electricity. At that time, it was known that electricity and magnetism are related to each other. Hans Oersted found deflection in magnetic compass in the influence of current carrying wire. In the continuation of this Andre-Marie Ampere followed a series of experiments and found that force exerted is related to the current flowing through the wire. It’s the principle on which all the galvanometer, ammeters, and voltmeters work. Thus, electricity became for the first time exact Science. In the continuation of this George Ohms and Kirchhoff stated relation between current, voltage and resistance in the electric circuits.
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Faraday's experiment
of "electromagnetic
-induction" |
Michel Faraday, the next important electrical discover, worked on the Oersted's Idea and using large coils with powerful electromagnets made the first simple electric motor (
The first ever electric machine) Later after ten years worked on the reverse theory he showed that changing the current in one wire can produce electricity in another nearby wire. This is known as "
Electromagnetic Induction". This principle came with the idea of dynamo or alternator.
Thomas Alva Edison, the American scientist, and inventor developed first ever electric generator capable of generating the large currents than the voltaic pile.
Now it was well clear that electricity is a form of energy. Humphrey Davy made the first electric Arc lamp by connecting the terminals of a large battery to the two pieces of charcoal just separated from one another, making a brilliant white light. Later, the famous, Edison pioneered modern light bulbs by passing a current through a thin carbon filament enclosed in a glass bulb, and making it glow white hot.
All the important electrical effects have been discovered and explained by 1850. Two major theories were confusing scientists- first was the
Electromagnetic Waves and second was at
what electricity is? James Clerk
Maxwell was one of who explained well electromagnetic waves through the series of mathematical expressions. Later, in 1887, The German Physicist, Heinrich Hertz, actually made and detected these waves. Guglielmo Marconi proposed the idea about these waves that they could be used for transmitting messages, without wires, through the air. They were first used in the communication to transmit signals over a large distance, in the 20
th century, for the broadcasting of sound and video signals.
The second mystery that what electricity is, was not answered until 1897, when J.J. Thomson discovered the building block of electricity, the Electron, by his well-known vacuum tube experiment. Robert Millikan, in 1911, showed that electron carries the smallest amount of charge possible.
