Electricity is so ubiquitous in our daily lives that we tend to think of it as a fundamental necessity, just like running water. However, the truth is that humans have only relatively recently taken advantage of this type of benefit. Studied since the late 16th century, electricity - understood as observable electrical phenomena - was for a long time a mere object of curiosity and entertainment before it became part of our daily lives. If you have ever wondered how and why this change came about, you will find many of the answers in this brief history of electricity.

In Dimatech Costa del Sol s.l., we are dedicated to the installation of led lights, electrical panels, troubleshooting in gas boilers, installation of electric car chargers, and all kinds of electrical installations in Marbella, San Pedro Alcantara, Estepona, Cancelada and other nearby towns on the Costa del Sol, so all our work revolves around this issue of electricity. We are electricians for individuals and companies near you. Do you want to know the details? If so, read on.

The discovery of electricity: its principles

Until the end of the 18th century, the term electricity was reserved for those bodies that, after being rubbed together, attracted or repelled each other, a field known today as electrostatics. In any case, the attraction of light bodies to electrified objects by friction has been known since antiquity. Its discovery is attributed to the Greek philosopher Thales of Miletus (6th century BC), who saw that, after rubbing a small piece of amber vigorously, it acquired the property of attracting small particles. Indeed, the word electricity derives from the Greek elektron, meaning 'amber'. However, the systematic study of electricity did not really begin until the end of the 16th century, with the English scientist William Gilbert (1544-1603), author of the first known treatise on the subject.

Gilbert's contributions would be taken up by a German, Otto von Guericke (1602-1686), who invented the first vacuum machine. This facilitated the attraction of electrified bodies, since air was no longer an obstacle. Von Guericke was also the architect of the first electrostatic machine: in this case, a large sulfur balloon that the scientist electrified by rubbing it with his hands. These rudimentary instruments enabled him to discover both the phenomenon of electrical conduction, i.e., the ability of this mysterious energy to be transmitted through certain bodies, and the power of points, i.e., the tendency of pointed objects to exhibit electrical properties.

This last effect was exploited a century later by the American Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790), after having demonstrated, in 1752, that lightning is a phenomenon of an electrical nature, a kind of giant spark. This observation, together with Von Guericke's findings about pointed objects, allowed him to invent the lightning rod. It was a pointed rod that, when placed on buildings or ships, kept them safe from the effects of electricity from clouds.

In the 18th century, the experimental work begun in the previous century accelerated. Soon other effects were discovered and new tools appeared, while new concepts were defined, an indispensable preliminary step for the knowledge of electrostatic phenomena. We owe to the Englishman Stephen Gray (1666-1673) the discovery of electrification by influence, consisting of the possibility of electrifying a body at a distance, without direct contact, as well as the distinction between conductive bodies, which allow electricity to propagate, and insulating bodies, which inhibit this transmission.

Positive and negative charges and voltage

In 1733, the French physicist and chemist Charles du Fay (1698-1739) made another key contribution to the history of electricity. Du Fay discovered that there were two types of electricity-what we refer to today as electric charges: a first type obtained from rubbing glass, which he called glassy electricity, and a second type obtained from the friction of resinous bodies, which he called resinous electricity. Undoubtedly the names are well placed and quite clarify the reason for them. Two bodies with an electric charge of the same nature repel each other, while two bodies with a different electric charge attract each other. For this reason, Benjamin Franklin adopted years later the concepts of positive and negative electricity. This is what we have always heard in school.

However, the real revolution came from an unexpected place: the work of an Italian anatomist, Luigi Galvani (1737-1798) on the muscles of dissected frog legs. In 1791, he discovered that these muscles showed curious electrical properties when they came into contact with two metals of different nature. What was this gentleman playing at to realize this strange circumstance?

Shortly thereafter, the Italian physicist Alessandro Volta (1745-1827) took up his compatriot's advances and demonstrated that the frog played merely a secondary role: the electrical effect actually resulted from the contact of two metals of different natures through a damp cloth. Inspired by this conclusion, in 1800 he developed the first electric battery, which consisted of a pile - hence its name - of copper and zinc discs, between which were interconnected tissues soaked in acid. This was indeed an electrical revolution that brings us closer to more current terms of electricity and electricians.

This invention revolutionized electricity: unlike electrostatic machines that had to be charged by friction - and which discharged in a very short time - the Volta battery produced a kind of continuous discharge that the French physicist André-Marie Ampère (hence the term Ampère) (1775-1836) baptized in 1820 as electric current. This concept refers to a displacement of charges within a conductor. In homage to Ampère, the international unit of the intensity of electric current, i.e. the quantity of charges passing through a section of conductor per unit time, is called ampere. In homage to Volta, the term voltage was coined, i.e. the capacity of a battery to produce an electric current. The quantity would be expressed in volts.

Motors and electromagnetism

Another important moment in the history of electricity came with the discovery of electrolysis, which consisted of the decomposition of a substance in solution into ions by means of an electric current. This was done by means of two solid rods connected to the terminals of a battery (two electrodes, according to the terminology introduced by Michael Faraday a few years later). Electrolysis enabled the English chemist Humphry Davy (1778-1829) to discover, at the beginning of the 19th century, a multitude of hitherto unknown elements: sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium, barium and strontium. By replacing the aqueous solution with a gas enclosed in a glass enclosure, the first long-lasting electrical discharges were produced, which would serve as the basis for the first urban lighting devices in the second half of the 19th century. We are almost in modern times. Finally, in 1841, the Englishman James Prescott Joule (1818-1899) observed that the passage of an electric current in a metallic conductor caused a release of heat. This is the Joule effect, a phenomenon whereby, if an electric current flows in a conductor, part of the kinetic energy of the electrons is transformed into heat.

This finding would trigger a second revolution in northern Europe. In 1820, Hans Christian Ørsted (1777-1851), professor of physics at the University of Copenhagen, observed that a conducting wire with an electric current deflected a magnetic needle placed nearby. This experiment, while revealing for the first time the existence of magnetic effects of electricity, inaugurated the study of interactions between magnets and wires crossed by currents.

This study had considerable theoretical implications. Without going any further, he showed that a magnet could move a conducting wire crossed by a current. Taking advantage of this effect to turn on an electric circuit, Michael Faraday realized, as early as 1821, what can be considered the ancestor of the electric motor.

On the other hand, Ørsted's experience had demonstrated the existence of links between electricity and magnetism. The two domains were unified by the Scotsman James Clerk Maxwell (1831-1879) in 1864, giving rise to electromagnetism.

The age of great electrical inventions!

The second half of the 19th century was marked by a spectacular development of industrial or electrotechnical electricity. The Volta battery was soon replaced by more efficient batteries, such as the Daniell battery (1836), the Bunsen battery (1841) or the Leclanché battery (1864). In 1859, the Frenchman Gaston Planté (1834-1889) developed the first rechargeable battery or accumulator. Generators experienced a similar boom: the invention of the dynamo in the 1870s by Zénobe Gramme (1826-1901) foreshadowed the appearance of the first alternating current generators or alternators, in particular thanks to the work of the Croatian engineer Nikola Tesla, a name that is sure to ring a bell, at least to Elon Musk (1856-1943). These devices, driven by the huge turbines of power plants, are the central element in the production of electrical energy. The development of generators naturally accompanied the development of inverter devices, better known as electric motors.

These advances contributed to the development of electrical applications throughout the last century. As early as 1839, the first telecommunications instrument using electrical signals transmitted along a wire, the telegraph, developed by engineers William Cooke and Charles Wheatstone, appeared in England. In 1876, the American Alexander Graham Bell (1847-1922) used electrical signals for the first time to carry the human voice from a distance: the telephone had just been born. What would he say now if he saw that nobody calls on a telephone anymore and that we only watch things on the Internet?

Soon it was the turn of means of transport to be electrified: the first electric tramway, by German engineers Werner von Siemens and Johann Halske, dates from 1879. The first electric train, invented by Thomas Alva Edison (1847-1931), dates from 1880. Edison was also the driving force behind numerous inventions, such as the phonograph, the motion picture camera and the incandescent light bulb. He was a phenomenon and thanks to him all electricians have a job.

Thanks to the development of electrical transformers in the 1880s and the high voltages that these devices made possible, it was possible to extend the distance of electricity transport from its place of production to the heart of the cities, which meant an urban revolution. This also marked the birth of illuminated signs, which marked a turning point in the history of advertising.

At this point in the history of electricity, we could dwell on many other aspects that allowed the evolution and improvement of lighting, such as LED technology. Or the birth of the first television set, created on January 26, 1927 by the Scotsman John Logie Baird (1888-1946). However, so many advances and so decisive that they deserve a separate post.

We hope to have shed some light on the subject of electricity and its origins, how they gradually realized the usefulness of energy and the advances that have been made in recent centuries so enormous and that make life so much easier for us. What awaits us to discover in the next century? Nobody knows but it must be incredible. Progress is exponential and I don't think there is any limit to technological progress.

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