Who discovered electricity and when?

Answer

From ElectricityForum.com (see link to the left):

Despite what you have learned, Benjamin Franklin did not "invent" electricity. In fact, electricity did not begin when Benjamin Franklin flew his kite during a thunderstorm or when light bulbs were installed in houses all around the world.

The truth is that electricity has always been around because it naturally exists in the world. Lightning, for instance, is simply a flow of electrons between the ground and the clouds. When you touch something and get a shock, that is really static electricity moving toward you.

Hence, electrical equipment like motors, light bulbs, and batteries aren't needed for electricity to exist. They are just creative inventions designed to harness and use electricity.

The first discoveries of electricity were made back in ancient Greece. Greek philosophers discovered that when amber is rubbed against cloth, lightweight objects will stick to it. This is the basis of static electricity.

Over the centuries, there have been many discoveries made about electricity. We've all heard of famous people like Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Edison, but there have been many other inventors throughout history that were each a part in the development of electricity.

See the ElectricityForum.com website (link to the left under Web Links) for much more information about electricity, its history, and the people who studied it.

Answer

The exact person and date is unknown, however, early humans most likely discovered electricity first when lightning storms occurred and struck trees causing fire.

Answer

Electricity was discovered long before 1831. Chemical batteries have been around since ancient Greece. One of the earliest scientists to begin to quantify electric charges was the French physicist Charles-Augustin Coulomb (1736-1806). His law for measuring the magnitude of electric charge is still a cornerstone in modern physics. Ampere and Ohm defined current and resistance in direct current and Nikola Tesla invented the AC generator in the late 19th century.

Answer

Mentions of electricity have been found in writings as early as 600BC by the Greek Thales of Miletus.

Inventor of Electricity

Electricity wasn't invented. Its properties were discovered, examined and explained.
Thales of Miletus in ancient Greece is the earliest record I can find of experimentation with electrical properties. There are two types, lightning and man made.

Here are more opinions and answers from other FAQ Farmers:

• Alessandro Volta invented the first source of continuous electric current.

• Benjamin Franklin.

• No, Franklin proved that lightning was electrical in nature and performed several experiments with the properties of the (known) force of electricity. Electricity has always been around, of course; I believe the other respondents are correct in saying Volta was the first to identify it as a force.

• No one "invented" electricity. It was discovered.

• It was 'discovered' by alessandro volta

• No, it was discovered thousands of years before that. Thales of Miletus, a Greek in 600AD discovered static electricity that attracted pieces of straw and hair to rubbed rods of amber. Volta invented the first real battery, in 1779. Benjamin Franklin was the first to liken static charges ot lightening, and found them ot be the same thing, electricity. He also discovered the difference between negative and positive charges. The word 'electricity' actually comes from the Greek 'elektron' meaning amber.

• Well, no one really "invented" electricity, but you can ask who discovered it. While people have known about the powerful effects of lightning for thousands of years, the first person to discover that lightning was a naturally occuring form of electricity was Benjamin Franklin. In 1752, during a dangerous electrical storm, Franklin flew a kite that had a metal key at the bottom of the string. When a bolt of lightning hit the kite, a spark of electricity flew from the key! From this experiment, Franklin invented the lightning rod, which attracts lightning and draws it into the ground. This saves many buildings from burning down.

• Volta discovered the first non-static electricity. He created a battery out of stacks of zinc and copper stacked with weak acids in between each layer. Ben Franklin just worked with static electricity, which was discovered long ago and is currently not very helpful.

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