Abhi's Electricity Timeline

By Dashora
  • Period: 600 BCE to 600 BCE

    Greek discovered static electricity

    600 BC Thales, a Greek, found that when amber was rubbed with silk it attracted feathers and other light objects. He had discovered static electricity. The Greek word for amber is ëelectron', from which we get ëelectricity' and ëelectronics'.
  • Period: to

    William Gilbert named electricity

    1600 William Gilbert, scientist and physician to Queen Elizabeth I, invented the term electricity (from the Greek word for amber, elecktra). He was the first person to describe the earth's magnetic field and to realise that there is a relationship between magnetism and electricity.
  • Period: to

    Francis Hauksbee created a neon light

    1705 Francis Hauksbee created electrical effects by putting some mercury into a glass globe, pumping out the air and then spinning it. When he did this in the dark, and then rubbed the globe with his bare hand, it glowed. (He didn't realise it, but he had invented the neon light!)
  • Period: to

    Benjamin Franklin proved lightning is a form of electricity

    1752 Benjamin Franklin, famous U.S. politician, flew a kite with a metal tip into a thunderstorm to prove that lightning is a form of electricity. He was very lucky he wasn't killed.
  • Period: to

    Sir Humphry Davy discovered electrolysis

    1800 Sir Humphry Davy discovered that when he passed an electric current through some substances they decomposed. This process later became known as electrolysis. Davy's experiments with electrolysis led to the discovery of a number of elements, including magnesium, calcium, strontium and barium.
  • Period: to

    Hans Christian discovered magnetic feild caused bt electricity

    1820 Hans Christian Oersted of Denmark found that when electricity flows through a wire, it produces a magnetic field that affects the needle of a nearby compass.

  • Michael Faraday discovery makes electric motors

    1821 Michael Faraday discovered that when a magnet is moved inside a coil of copper wire, a tiny electric current flows through the wire. This discovery later led to the invention of electric motors.

  • 1870 Thomas Edison built a DC (direct current) electric generator

    1870 Thomas Edison built a DC (direct current) electric generator in America. He later provided all of New York's electricity.
  • Period: to

    Thomas Edison created a long lasting light bulb

    Thomas Edison was the first recorded inventor to produce a long-lasting electric light bulb, which he created in his laboratory in 1879.

  • Nikola Tesla made a Tesla coil

    1880 Nikola Tesla used the ëTesla coil' to step up ordinary household current to produce extremely high frequency current. Tesla used this high frequency current to develop some of the first neon and fluorescent lights.

  • Thomas Edison powered a few city blocks

    by the end of the 1880s Thomas Edison was able to power a few city blocks through electrical stations towards the end of the 1880s.
  • Period: to

    Nikola tesla developed a AC motor

    1880 Nikola Tesla developed an AC (alternating current) motor and a system of AC power generation. Edison saw Tesla's system as a threat to his DC supply and spread stories that it wasn't not safe. But, after Tesla's system was used to power 100,000 electric lights at Chicago's World Fair in 1893, AC became the established power supply in the USA.

  • 1895 The first electric hand drill became available.

    1895 The first electric hand drill became available, invented by Wilhelm Fein

  • Albert Einstein showed that light energy could produce electricity

    1905 Albert Einstein demonstrated that light energy could be used to produce electricity ñ the idea behind photovoltaic cells was born.
  • Period: to

    Albert Einstein showed that light energy could produce electricity

    1905 Albert Einstein demonstrated that light energy could be used to produce electricity ñ the idea behind photovoltaic cells was born.