Who Discovered Electricity?

Electricity is the most important base of modern civilization. The word electricity comes from a Greek word "electron" which means "amber". As far back as 600 B.C. the Greeks knew that when amber was rubbed, it became capable of attracting to it light bits of cork or paper. There was no progress in the study of electricity till 1672; in that year Otto Von Guericke produced a more powerful charge of electricity by holding his hand against a ball of spinning Sulphur. Stephen Gray found some substances such as metals, carried electricity from one location to another, in 1729. These metals came to be called "conductors". He also found that others such as glass, sulphur, amber and wax didn't carry electricity. These were called "insulators".

It was a very important step when a Frenchman named du Fay discovered positive and negative charges of electricity in 1733. Benjamin Franklin tried to give an explanation of what electricity was. He thought the method of "electrical fluid". That fluid was nothing but the electrons which were negatively charged.

The most significant developments of electricity started with the invention of the first battery in 1800 by Alessandro Volta. It gave the world its first continuous, reliable source of electric current.

Stephen Gray

Greek