Just like food and water, electricity is also an essential requirement for livelihood. It is unimaginable how life without electricity would feel like. It would be difficult to enjoy life without electricity. We should be glad for being born at a time when we have access to electricity, and it is equally important to know who discovered it.
The History of Electricity
Electricity required the contribution of many people. In 6th century B.C, a man named Thales of Miletus discovered that rubbing a fur with some other subject causes the objects to attract each other. Amazed at what he discovered, he starting rubbing all kinds of objects together. His greatest success came with amber, to the point where he could get sparks to form.
It was in 1600 A.D that the word electricity came into existence. A physician by the name William Gilbert made use of the term to describe the force that certain substances exert when rubbed against each other. Another Englishmen by the name, Thomas Browne wrote several books where he made use of the word electricity in order to describe his investigations based on the works of Gilbert.
In 1752, a man named Benjamin franklin conducted a kite experiment. In order to prove that lightning was electricity, he flew a kite during a thunderstorm. He tied a metal key to the kite string to release electricity.
Electricity pouring down the storm cloud carried the kite and electricity flowing down the string gave him an electric shock. Though he was not hurt, he didn’t mind getting struck by lightning since his idea was proven.
Many scientists, based on Franklin’s work, began understanding more about electricity and how it works. Thomas Edison, in 1879, invented the electric light bulb and our world has been bright ever since.
