Electricity Timeline

The History of Electricity

1845

By:Chamod and Yadu

1947

William Shockley, John Bardeen,

and Walter Brittain

Michael Faraday also made the discovery that light is a form of electromagnetism. This is important because it laid out the idea of the electromagnetic spectrum.

These three men invented the transistor, an important object which most electronics need to function properly and much more efficiently.

Michael Faraday (again)

The electromagnetic spectrum

Two pictures of the first version of the transistor.

To the right: the first one

ever.

To the left: a miniature model of the first one.

Alessandro Volta

1800

Otto Von

Geuricke

Alessandro Volta was an Italian scientist who invented the voltaic pile, the first battery. Even though it was much bigger than our batteries, it still worked.

Otto Von Geuricke was a German scientist who built

a machine for generating static electicity.

This electric generator generated electricity by applying friction in the machine. The generator was made of a large sulfur ball cast inside a glass globe, which was mounted on a shaft. The ball was rotated by a crank and a static electric spark was produced when a pad was rubbed against the ball as it rotated

1663

A diagram of the voltaic

pile and the contents of it.

A painting of the experiment

A small version of the sulfur ball

1888

Heinrich Hertz

Benjamin Franklin's experiment

1831

Joseph Henry and Michael Faraday

Although working seperately (and in different countries, American scientist Joseph Henry and British scientist Michael Faraday build the first electric generator and first electric motor.

German scientist Heinrich Hertz proves that it is possible to transmit electricity in electromagnetic waves, leading to the invention of the radio.

Benjamin Franklin was a French-American scientist that showed that lightning was a form of static electricity. The way he found this very famous. He used the wet string of a kite to conduct electricity from the sky.

To the left is a diagram of the first electric motor. To the right is a diagram of the first electric generator. Both of these diagrams were made by Michael Faraday.

1729

1752

Benjamin Franklin

Stephen Grey

Stephen Grey's wire

(still with insulation)

Stephen Grey was a British scientist that was the first to demonstrate that static electricity could be made to flow along conducting wires.He did this in. He made the terms counductors and insulators after discovering only some wires conduct electricity.

Joseph John Thomson

Modern conducting wires (with insulation below)

1897

Andre-Marie Ampere

Joseph John Thomson was the British scientist who discovered the electron

Luigi Galvani was an Italian scientist who discovered that mucles in a dead frogs limbs twitch if electricity touches them.

1900

Luigi Galvani

A diagram of an atom.

(Electrons are usually found in atoms)

A diagram of how Luigi Galvani supplied electricity into the frogs legs and made it twitch in his experiment

Paul Karl Ludwig Drude

Andre-Marie Ampere was the French scientist who established the relationship between electricity and magnetism, creating the science of electromagnetism.

German Scientist Paul Karl Ludwig Drude demonstrates that an electric current is a continous flow of electrons.

1786

1820