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Pioneers in Electricity
he phenomenon that Thales had observed and recorded in antiquity aroused the interest of many sci-
entists through the ages. They made various practical experiments in their efforts to identify the elu-
sive force that Thales had likened to a “soul” and which we now know to have been static electricity.
Of all forms of energy, electricity is the most baffling and difficult to describe. An electric current cannot be
seen. In fact it does not exist outside the wires and other conductors that carry it. A live wire carrying a current
looks exactly the same and weighs exactly the same as it does when it is not carrying a current. An electric
current is simply a movement or flow of electrons.
The following sections describe some pioneers in the advancement of our knowledge of electricity.
Section 1: The Early Scientists
Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin, the
American statesman and scientist born in Boston in
1706, investigated the nature of thunder and light-
ning by flying a child’s kite during a thunderstorm. He
had attached a metal spike to the kite, and at the
other end of the string to which the kite was tied he
secured a key. As the rain soaked into the string,
electricity flowed freely down the string and Franklin
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L14.fm Page 345 Sunday, July 7, 2002 10:18 PM