Was electricity invented?
Electricity wasn’t invented; it’s a natural part of the universe, found in lightning, your nerves and even electric eels. But people had to discover how it works and invent ways to make, store and use it. This took more than 2000 years and many scientists.
Early discoveries
| Year | Person | Discovery |
|---|---|---|
| About 600 BCE | Thales of Miletus (Greece) | Rubbing amber with fur made it attract feathers (static electricity). The Greek word for amber, elektron, gave us the word "electricity." |
| 1600 | William Gilbert (England) | Studied magnetism and static electricity; coined the word electricus |
| 1745 | Pieter van Musschenbroek and Ewald von Kleist | Leyden jar, the first device to store electric charge |
| 1752 | Benjamin Franklin (USA) | Kite experiment suggested lightning is electricity; invented the lightning rod |
Franklin’s kite experiment was very dangerous. A scientist in Russia, Georg Richmann, was killed in 1753 trying a similar experiment.
The first steady current
| Year | Person | Invention or discovery |
|---|---|---|
| 1780s | Luigi Galvani (Italy) | Frog legs twitched when touched with two different metals |
| 1800 | Alessandro Volta (Italy) | The voltaic pile, the first battery, producing a steady electric current. The volt is named after him. |
Volta stacked discs of zinc and copper separated by cloth soaked in salt water. For the first time, people could make a steady flow of electricity instead of quick sparks.
Electricity and magnetism
| Year | Person | Discovery |
|---|---|---|
| 1820 | Hans Christian Ørsted (Denmark) | An electric current makes a compass needle move: electricity creates magnetism |
| 1820s | André-Marie Ampère (France) | Explained the forces between currents; the ampere is named after him |
| 1827 | Georg Ohm (Germany) | Ohm’s law, linking voltage, current and resistance |
| 1831 | Michael Faraday (England) | Electromagnetic induction: a moving magnet near a wire coil creates electricity |
| 1860s | James Clerk Maxwell (Scotland) | Equations unifying electricity, magnetism and light |
Faraday’s discovery led to the electric generator and the electric motor, the foundations of the modern electric world.
Putting electricity to work
| Year | Invention |
|---|---|
| 1844 | Telegraph sends messages by electricity |
| 1876 | Telephone (Alexander Graham Bell) |
| 1879 | Practical long-lasting light bulb (Thomas Edison, and Joseph Swan in England) |
| 1882 | Edison’s Pearl Street Station in New York, an early central power station |
| 1880s | Nikola Tesla’s alternating current (AC) motor and power system |
| 1895–1896 | Niagara Falls hydroelectric power sent electricity to Buffalo, New York |
The War of the Currents
In the 1880s and 1890s, Thomas Edison promoted direct current (DC), which flows in one direction. George Westinghouse and Nikola Tesla promoted alternating current (AC), which reverses direction many times a second.
AC won because transformers can easily raise its voltage to send it long distances with little loss, then lower it for homes. Today, nearly all power grids use AC. In North America, it reverses 60 times a second (60 Hz).
Electricity in Canada
| Year | Event |
|---|---|
| Early 1900s | Hydroelectric stations built at Niagara Falls and Shawinigan, Quebec |
| 1906 | Ontario’s Hydro-Electric Power Commission (later Ontario Hydro) created |
| 1944 | Hydro-Québec created |
Today, about 60% of Canada’s electricity comes from hydro.
How electricity changed life
Before electricity, people lit homes with candles and oil lamps, kept food cold with ice, and did most work by hand or with animals. Electricity brought:
- safe, bright lighting
- refrigerators and electric stoves
- radio, television, computers and the internet
- factories with electric motors
- modern medicine, like X-rays and MRI scanners
Common mistakes
- Thinking one person invented electricity.
- Thinking Edison invented the light bulb alone. Many inventors worked on it; Edison made a practical, long-lasting version.
- Thinking batteries store electricity. They store chemical energy.
Try it yourself
- Rub a balloon on your hair and pick up small paper pieces. You’re repeating Thales’ discovery!
- Make a lemon battery with a copper coin and a galvanized nail. Connect several in a row to light an LED.
- Make a timeline poster of five key discoveries about electricity.
Quick recap
- Electricity is natural; scientists discovered how to make and use it.
- Volta invented the first battery in 1800.
- Faraday discovered electromagnetic induction in 1831, leading to generators.
- AC power, promoted by Tesla and Westinghouse, became the standard.
- Electricity transformed homes, industry, communication and medicine.