History of Electricity
The History of Electricity
Our knowledge of electricity has started from very humble beginnings when you look at where we are today. Electricity has been around for as long as humans have. When lightning strikes ancient people may not have understood what it was or why it happened, but they at the very least witnessed it happen. Nature acted as a sort of catalyst to spark the curiosity of early people. It was only until sometime between 624 BC and 546 BC where an understanding of electricity began to form. Thales of Miletus had been one of the first to experiment with static electricity. It is believed that Thales was polishing amber with fur and he noticed that the amber would attract other objects like straw and feathers [1]. This was static electricity being controlled by a person. Thales took his observation even further and created a machine that consisted of two spinning disks. One disk was covered with fur and the other was made of amber [1]. Through another mechanism the two disks were made to rub against each other very quickly. In a dark room it was quite clear that the machine was generating sparks. Although Thales and others who made this discovery may not have understood why the sparks were appearing, they were able to experiment and control electricity. We see the first true understanding of electricity comes sometime between 250 BC and 224 AD. Vase shaped objects were found in the village of Khuyut Rabbou’a that almost certainly served as batteries. All these vases were five inches tall and had a one and a half inch opening on the top [2]. Each vase had a copper cylinder inside of it that was made from a rolled up sheet of copper. Inside of this copper sheet was an iron rod. The vase was sealed off, but it was not water tight. This meant you could pour in an electrolyte and possibly start an electrochemical reaction between the two metals and produce a voltage. The ancient people that created these makeshift batteries showed
Our knowledge of electricity has started from very humble beginnings when you look at where we are today. Electricity has been around for as long as humans have. When lightning strikes ancient people may not have understood what it was or why it happened, but they at the very least witnessed it happen. Nature acted as a sort of catalyst to spark the curiosity of early people. It was only until sometime between 624 BC and 546 BC where an understanding of electricity began to form. Thales of Miletus had been one of the first to experiment with static electricity. It is believed that Thales was polishing amber with fur and he noticed that the amber would attract other objects like straw and feathers [1]. This was static electricity being controlled by a person. Thales took his observation even further and created a machine that consisted of two spinning disks. One disk was covered with fur and the other was made of amber [1]. Through another mechanism the two disks were made to rub against each other very quickly. In a dark room it was quite clear that the machine was generating sparks. Although Thales and others who made this discovery may not have understood why the sparks were appearing, they were able to experiment and control electricity. We see the first true understanding of electricity comes sometime between 250 BC and 224 AD. Vase shaped objects were found in the village of Khuyut Rabbou’a that almost certainly served as batteries. All these vases were five inches tall and had a one and a half inch opening on the top [2]. Each vase had a copper cylinder inside of it that was made from a rolled up sheet of copper. Inside of this copper sheet was an iron rod. The vase was sealed off, but it was not water tight. This meant you could pour in an electrolyte and possibly start an electrochemical reaction between the two metals and produce a voltage. The ancient people that created these makeshift batteries showed
References: [4] (2014, February 10). Brief History of Thermoelectrics. Available: http://www.thermoelectrics.caltech.edu/thermoelectrics/history.html. [5] (2014, February 10). The Vacuum Tube. Available: http://www.pbs.org/transistor/science/events/vacuumt.html. [6] (2014, February 10). Fleming Valve. Available: http://www.ieeeghn.org/wiki/index.php/Milestones:Fleming_Valve,_1904. [10] (2014, February 10). The History of the Electric Telegraph and Telegraphy. Available: http://inventors.about.com/od/tstartinventions/a/telegraph.htm. [11] (2014, February 10). The History of the Telephone. Available: http://inventors.about.com/od/bstartinventors/a/telephone.htm. [12] (2014, February). The Invention of Radio. Available: http://inventors.about.com/od/rstartinventions/a/radio.htm. [13] (2014, February 10). Sir Thomas Browne 's Vulgar Errors II.i: Of Crystal and Ice. Available: http://penelope.uchicago.edu/pseudodoxia/pseudo21.html#page53. [17] (2014, February 10). The Baghdad Battery. Available: http://unmuseum.mus.pa.us/bbattery.htm.