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William Gilbert- electricity
First to use scientific methods to study static electricty. Believed that he made the term "electricity" which means amber in Greek. -
Stephen Gray- conductors and insulators
Stephen Gray (England) distinguished between conductors and nonconductors of electrical charges. -
Francis Hauksbee- neon light
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. -
Benjamin Franklin- kite and key experiment
Franklin used a kite and a key to prove that lightning was just electricity in motion. He had electrocuted himself when doing it. -
Benjamin Franklin- lightning rod
Franklin made a lightning rod and placed it on his house at the top. the lightning would hit the rod and be short circuited to the ground, therefore, not harming the house. -
Guigi Galvani- electricity and muscles
He found a connection between electricity and the working of muscles. His experiment had made a spark which made a dead frog's leg move! Later on, he hooked on a brass hook to the frog's muscle and attached it to a railing (iron). His experiment was in a thunder storm and he noticed that the muscles moved when the rail was hit by lightning. -
Charles Francois du Fay- positive and negative
He discovered that electricity came in two kinds that he named resinous(-) and vitreous(+). -
Alessandro Volta- first wet cell battery
This battery was used to produce an electrical current. The current would flow through a wire that connected the two discs. Made from silver and zinc discs covered in a solution of acid. -
Hans Oersted- connection
He discovered a connection between electricity and magneism. If an electric current flowed through a wire, it would create a magnetic field. -
John Schweigger
The connection between magnetism and electricity lead to the invention of the galvanometer. It is a device to detect electric currents. -
Thomas Johann Seebeck- thermo electricity
Thomas Johann Seebeck found that when the junction of certain metals is heated, electricity flows in thermo-electricity. -
Joseph Henry- electromagnetism
Joseph Henry showed that a wire wrapped in coils produces a greater electromagnetism than a straight one. -
Michael Faraday- transformer
A transformer is a instrument that can change the voltage of an electric current. -
Henry Woodward- light bulb (Canadian)
Henry invented and sold the patent of the light bulb to Thomas Edison and Edison improved it. -
William Sturgeon- electromagnet
He invented the electromagnet. An electromagnet is a magnet that runs on electricity. Unlike a permanent magnet, the strength of an electromagnet can easily be changed by changing the amount of electric current that flows through it. -
Alexnder graham bell- phone (invent in Canada)
Alexander invented the phone in Canada.His phone was inpired by his interest in deaf people. The phone was very old so it had problems with volume and clarity. -
John joseph Wright- eletric streetcar (Canadian)
John Joseph Wright invented an electric streetcar. -
J.J. Thomson- electron
He disscovered the electron in the atom. -
Electric organ (Canadian)
Morse Robb of Belleville, Ontario, patented the world's first electric organ. -
Electron Microscope (Canadian)
Eli Franklin Burton, Cecil Hall, James Hillier, Albert Prebus co-invented the electron microscope in 1937. -
ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer)
The first general purpose electronic digital computer was built, the ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer). -
John Bardeen, Walter Brattain, and William Shockley- transistor
They invented a transistor in their lab. A transistor is used to amplify and switch electronic signals. It is a semi-conductor device. -
Farm Electricity
Almost all American farms had electricity. -
Richard Keefer- garbage battery (Canadian)
17- year old Keefer had invented a battery that could run on garbage! This battery lasted longer than store batteries and cost about the same. -
LIMPET- The world's first commercial wave power station (in Canada)
The world's first commercial wave power station on the Scottish island of Islay began to generate electricity. Devices are placed on the shoreline or out at sea that use wave motion to compress air to drive a turbine or hydraulic pumps. It can provide enough electricity for about 400 homes.
