The History of Electricity
Who Discovered Electricity?
Benjamin Franklin is credited for discovering electricity in the 1700s with his kite experiment, in which he flew a kite with a metal key tied to it during a thunderstorm.
In science, electricity and its history is a fascinating topic that can help your children understand how life has changed because of electricity.
When was Electricity First Used in People's Homes?
Electricity was first introduced into people’s homes near the end of the Victorian period in the late 19th century. The world's first electric street lights were set up in London in 1878 and can be found almost everywhere in the world today.
Electricity Timeline
600 BC | A Greek named Thales discovered that amber, when rubbed with silk, attracted feathers and other light objects. This is static electricity. The Greek word for amber is 'ëelectron', which is where words such as 'electricity' and 'electron' come from. |
1600 | William Gilbert, who was a scientist and physician to Queen Elizabeth I, invented the term 'electricity'. He was the first person to recognise that there was a connection between magnetism and electricity, and the first to describe the Earth's magnetic field. |
1700s | In the 1700s, machines to produce static electricity were first introduced. At first, they were just for fun and nicknamed 'parlour trick machines'. Over the century, they developed and advanced. |
1705 | Francis Hauksbee invented neon light. He created electrical effects by placing mercury into a glass globe, pumping out the air and spinning it. When he did this in the dark and then rubbed it with his bare hand, it glowed. He had invented neon light, without even knowing it. |
1752 | Benjamin Franklin, a famous U.S. politician, proved that lightning is a form of electricity by flying a kite with a metal tip into a thunderstorm. |
1780 | An Italian man named Luigi Galvani discovered that when he touched a dead frog's leg with a knife, it twitched violently. Later, Alessandro Volta showed that this was because electricity is created when moisture (from the frog) comes into contact with two different types of metal (the steel knife and a tin plate), then electricity is created. |
1800 | Alessandro Volta created the very first simple battery using pure silver and zinc discs, placed between muslin which was dampened with a salt solution. This was developed from Galvani's experiment with the frog's legs. During the same year, Sir Humphry Davy discovered electrolysis. When he passed an electrical current through some substances, they'd begin to decompose. This became known as electrolysis. Davy's experiments later led to the discovery of a range of elements, including calcium, magnesium, strontium, and barium. |
1820 | Magnetic fields caused by electricity were discovered. Hans Christian Oersted, from Denmark, found that when electricity flows through a wire, it generates a magnetic field which affects the needle of a nearby compass. |
1821 | Michael Faraday discovered that when a magnet is moved inside the coil of a copper wire, a tiny electric current flows through the wire. This discovery led to the invention of electric motors. In the same year, Thomas Johann Seebeck discovered thermo-electricity. He found that when the junctions of certain metals are heated, electricity flows through them. |
1826 | André Ampère published his theories about electricity and magnetism, explaining the electro-dynamic theory. He was the first person to explain this theory. The unit for electrical currents, ampere or amps, is named after him. |
1827 | A German college teacher named George Ohm published his complete mathematical theory of electricity. Now, the unit of electrical resistance (ohm) is named after him. |
1829 | Joseph Henry showed that a wire wrapped in coils produces a greater electromagnetism than a straight one. |
1830 | Joseph Henry discovered the principles of the dynamo — an electrical generator. |
1831 | Michael Faraday demonstrated electromagnetic induction by passing a magnet through a coil of wire. Charles Wheatstone and William Fothergill Cooke also created the first telegraph machine. |
1834 | Using a revolving mirror and four miles of wire, Charles Wheatstone successfully measured the velocity of electricity. |
1838 | Samuel Morse invented Morse Code at an exhibition in New York. He demonstrated sending 10 words a minute by his new telegraph machine. |
1870s | Thomas Edison built a DC (direct current) electric generator. After this, he provided all of New York's electricity. |
1876 | Alexander Graham invented the telephone using electricity. |
1878 | A British scientist named Joseph Swan demonstrated the first electric light with a carbon filament lamp. Thomas Edison made the same discovery a few months later in America. |
1880s | Nikola Tesla developed an AC (alternating current) motor and a system of AC power generation. Thomas Edison believed this to be a threat to his DC supply, so he spread stories that it wasn't safe to use. However, 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. Tesla also invented the Tesla Coil. He used this coil to make ordinary household currents produce extremely high-frequency currents. This was used to develop some of the first neon and fluorescent lights. Between 1880 and 1883, the Wimshurst machine (an electrostatic generator) was developed for generating high voltages of electricity. It was invented by a British inventor named James Wimshurst. |
1881 | The first public electricity supply in the UK was generated in Godalming, Surrey, using a waterwheel at a mill. |
1883 | Magnus Volks built the first electric railway. It was opened on Brighton seafront. Named the Volks Railway, it was built just for pleasure rides, is one mile long and still runs during summer. |
1884 | Charles Parsons built the first turbine, a type of engine which uses jets of high-pressure gases to operate. This type of engine was later developed to drive boat propellers, including the ones on the Titanic. |
1886 | Heinrich Hertz produced and detected electric waves in the atmosphere. |
1890 | Turbine driven generators were introduced to produce electricity. |
1892 | A Dutch physicist named Hendrik Lorentz published his electron theory. |
1895 | Wilhelm Fein invented the first electric hand drill. Wilhem Roentgen, a German physicist, discovered invisible rays that made a screen glow and passed through objects. These rays were X-rays. |
1896 | Nikola Tesla's hydroelectric power generators at Niagara Falls come into operation. Within a few years, these generators were supplying electricity to New York City for the elevated railways, the subways, and the lights on Broadway. |
1897 | Guglielmo Marconi sends a radio message from the Isle of Wight to Poole, which is 20 miles (ca. 32 km) away. He later sends a message across the Atlantic. |
1905 | Albert Einstein demonstrated that light energy could be used to produce electricity. |
1918 | Electric refrigerators and washing machines first become available. |
1926 | The first National Grid was introduced in the Electrical Supply Act. |
1930s | In the 1930s and 1940s, hydroelectric power stations were built in Scotland and Wales, even though most electricity still came from burning coal. Household electrical appliances were introduced, and mains powered radios, vacuum cleaners, fridges, and irons became a part of almost every household by the 1940s. |
1936 | The television was invented by John Logie Baird. |
1956 | At Calder Hall in Cumbria, the world's first large-scale nuclear power station was opened. The reactors were a prototype of the Magnox gas cooled reactor. |
1960s | The UK developed advanced gas cooled reactors to improve on the previous Magnox stations. France and the USA adopted water cooled reactor technology. |
1994 | The UK's first pressurised water reactor (PWR) was opened at Sizewell B in Suffolk. It had taken 7 years to build. |
2000 | The world's first commercial wave power station, located on the Scottish island of Islay, began to generate electricity. Devices on the shoreline or out at sea use motion from the waves to compress air to drive a turbine or hydraulic pumps. It can provide energy for around 400 homes. |
What is the Future of the Electricity Timeline?
Nowadays, in response to the Climate Crisis, there is a big emphasis being placed on renewable and sustainable energy. This is why renewable energy is currently the fastest-growing source of energy in the United States, increasing by a whopping 67% from the year 2000 to 2016. In fact, on 10th June 2020, the United Kingdom celebrated two months of running purely on renewable energy for the first time ever, which is a really exciting step in the electricity timeline.
There are many options for renewable energy, such as wind, solar, hydro, tidal, geothermal and biomass energy. The possibilities are endless! When looking to the future of the electricity timeline, it is highly likely that renewable energy will be the primary source of energy.
In addition to being good for the environment, running on renewable energy also has a lot of other amazing benefits. Some of the benefits of using renewable energy in your home include:
Cheaper electricity bills: Once the initial cost of installing a renewable energy system has been paid, your energy bills can be reduced drastically.
Make money from the electricity you generate: The UK Government has a thing called the Feed-in Tariff scheme, which actually pays you for the electricity you generate, even if you use it.
Reduce your carbon footprint: Renewable energy sources don’t release carbon dioxide or other pollutants into the atmosphere, which can majorly reduce your carbon footprint.
Science: Electricity Facts
- Electricity is measured in volts
- It's stored in huge grids
- You can get an electric shock from it
- Electricity travels well through some metal wire
- Electricity travels as fast as the speed of light
- A bolt of lightning can measure up to 3,000,000 volts
- Electric eels can produce strong electric shocks of up to 500 volts