Dominic G.

Leron

BSIT-2G

History of Electricity
The history of electricity begins with William Gilbert, a physician who served
Queen Elizabeth the first of England. Before William Gilbert, all that was known
about electricity and magnetism was that the lodestone possessed magnetic
properties, and that rubbing amber and jet would attract bits of stuff to start
sticking.
In 1600, William Gilbert published his treatise De magnete, Magneticisique
Corporibus.
Printed in scholarly Latin, the book explained years of Gilbert's research and
experiments on electricity and magnetism. Gilbert raised the interest in the new
science greatly. It was Gilbert who coined the expression "electrica" in his famous
book.

THE THUNDER OF THE NILE

The best experiences are those that need no words. At the top of Murchison Falls in
Uganda, even if you wanted to throw words into the misty air, youd need to be
very determined to yell them loud enough for anyone to hear over the roaring of
the Nile River as it tumbles through the gorge. Perhaps the most iconic river in all
of Africa, in the legends of the most ancient civilizations, the Nile River holds a
special mystique at any point in its path. But here at Murchison Falls, you can feel
its weight rumbling beneath your feet, feel the spray on your face (make sure you
have a lens cap for your camera!), and hear the reverence it demands in the
overwhelming thunder.

Thales of Miletus
Thales of Miletus (c. 624 BCE c. 546 BCE) was an ancient (pre-Soctratic) Greek
philosopher who is often considered the first philosopher and the father of Western
philosophy. His approach to philosophical questions of course cannot compare to
modern or even later Greek philosophers, however, he is the first known person to
use natural explanations for natural phenomena rather than turning to supernatural

world and his example was followed by other Greek thinkers who would give rise
to philosophy both as a discipline and science. In addition to being viewed as the
beginner of Western philosophy, Thales of Miletus is also the first to define general
principles and develop hypotheses. He is therefore sometimes also referred to as
the father of science although this epithet is usually used in reference to
Democritus, another prominent ancient Greek philosopher who formulated the
atomic theory that states that all matter is composed of particles called atoms.

Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin is best known as one of the Founding Fathers who drafted the
Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States.
Born in Boston in 1706, Benjamin Franklin helped to draft the Declaration of
Independence and the U.S. Constitution, and he negotiated the 1783 Treaty of
Paris, which ended the Revolutionary War. His scientific pursuits included
investigations into electricity, mathematics and mapmaking. A printer and writer
known for his wit and wisdom, Franklin was a polymath who published Poor
Richards Almanack, invented bifocal glasses and organized the first successful
American lending library.
Ben learned to read at an early age, and despite his success at the Boston Latin
School, he stopped his formal schooling at 10 to work full-time in his cashstrapped fathers candle and soap shop. Dipping wax and cutting wicks didnt fire
the young boys imagination, however. Perhaps to dissuade him from going to sea
as one of his brothers had done, Josiah apprenticed Ben at 12 to his brother James
at his print shop.
Although James mistreated and frequently beat his younger brother, Ben learned a
great deal about newspaper publishing and adopted a similar brand of subversive
politics under the printers tutelage. When James refused to publish any of his
brothers writing, 16 years old Ben adopted the pseudonym Mrs. Silence Dogood,
and her 14 imaginative and witty letters delighted readers of his brothers
newspaper, The New England Courant. James grew angry, however, when he
learned that his apprentice had penned the letters. Tired of his brothers harsh and
tyrannical behavior, Ben fled Boston in 1723 although he had three years

remaining on a legally binding contract with his master. He escaped to New York
before settling in Philadelphia, which became his home base for the rest of his life.
Franklin found work with another printer in Philadelphia and lodged at the home of
John Read, where he met and courted his landlords daughter Deborah. Encouraged
by Pennsylvania Governor William Keith to set up his own print shop, Franklin left
for London in 1724 to purchase supplies from stationers, booksellers and printers.
When the teenager arrived in England, however, he felt duped when Keiths letters
of introduction never arrived as promised. Although forced to find work at
Londons print shops, Franklin took full advantage of the citys pleasures attending
theater performances, mingling with the populace in coffee houses and continuing
his lifelong passion for reading. A self-taught swimmer who crafted his own
wooden flippers, Franklin performed long-distance swims on the Thames River. (In
1968, he was inducted as an honorary member of the International Swimming Hall
of Fame.)
In 1725 Franklin published his first pamphlet, "A Dissertation upon Liberty and
Necessity, Pleasure and Pain," which argued that humans lack free will and, thus,
are not morally responsible for their actions. (Franklin later repudiated this thought
and burned all but one copy of the pamphlet still in his possession.)
Franklin returned to Philadelphia in 1726 to find that Deborah Read had married in
the interim, only to be abandoned by her husband just months after the wedding. In
the next few years he held varied jobs such as bookkeeper, shopkeeper and
currency cutter. He returned to a familiar trade in 1728 when he printed paper
currency in New Jersey before partnering with a friend to open his own print shop
in Philadelphia that published government pamphlets and books. In 1730 Franklin
was named the official printer of Pennsylvania. By that time, he had formed the
Junto, a social and self-improvement study group for young men that met every
Friday to debate morality, philosophy and politics. When Junto members sought to
expand their reading choices, Franklin helped to incorporate Americas first
subscription library, the Library Company of Philadelphia, in 1731.

Michael Faraday
Faraday was a British chemist and physicist who contributed significantly to the
study of electromagnetism and electrochemistry.
Michael Faraday was born on 22 September 1791 in south London. His family was
not well off and Faraday received only a basic formal education. When he was 14,
he was apprenticed to a local bookbinder and during the next seven years, educated
himself by reading books on a wide range of scientific subjects. In 1812, Faraday
attended four lectures given by the chemist Humphry Davy at the Royal Institution.
Faraday subsequently wrote to Davy asking for a job as his assistant. Davy turned
him down but in 1813 appointed him to the job of chemical assistant at the Royal
Institution.
A year later, Faraday was invited to accompany Davy and his wife on an 18 month
European tour, taking in France, Switzerland, Italy and Belgium and meeting many
influential scientists. On their return in 1815, Faraday continued to work at the
Royal Institution, helping with experiments for Davy and other scientists. In 1821
he published his work on electromagnetic rotation (the principle behind the electric
motor). He was able to carry out little further research in the 1820s, busy as he was
with other projects. In 1826, he founded the Royal Institution's Friday Evening
Discourses and in the same year the Christmas Lectures, both of which continue to
this day. He himself gave many lectures, establishing his reputation as the
outstanding scientific lecturer of his time.
In 1831, Faraday discovered electromagnetic induction, the principle behind the
electric transformer and generator. This discovery was crucial in allowing
electricity to be transformed from a curiosity into a powerful new technology.
During the remainder of the decade he worked on developing his ideas about
electricity. He was partly responsible for coining many familiar words including
'electrode', 'cathode' and 'ion'. Faraday's scientific knowledge was harnessed for
practical use through various official appointments, including scientific adviser to
Trinity House (1836-1865) and Professor of Chemistry at the Royal Military
Academy in Woolwich (1830-1851).

However, in the early 1840s, Faraday's health began to deteriorate and he did less
research. He died on 25 August 1867 at Hampton Court, where he had been given
official lodgings in recognition of his contribution to science. He gave his name to
the 'farad', originally describing a unit of electrical charge but later a unit of
electrical capacitance.

Hans Christian Oersted

Hans Christian Oersted launched a new epoch in science when he discovered that
electricity and magnetism are linked. He showed by experiment that an electric
current flowing through a wire could move a nearby magnet. The discovery of
electromagnetism set the stage for the eventual development of our modern
technology-based world. Oersted also discovered the chemical compound piperine
and achieved the first isolation of the element aluminum
Hans Christian Oersted (rsted in Danish) was born in the small town of
Rudkbing on the island of Langeland, Denmark, on August 14, 1777. His father
was Soeren Christian Oersted, a pharmacist, and his mother was Karen
Hermandsen.
Hans and his younger brother Anders were educated through a combination of
home schooling and private tutors one a German wigmaker who, among other
things, taught the brothers to speak fluent German. Anders would one day become
Prime Minister of Denmark.
Hans became interested in chemistry at the age of 12 after he started helping in his
fathers pharmacy. At the age of 16 he passed the entrance exam for the University
of Copenhagen. There he studied pharmacology, graduating in 1796 at age 19.
Three more years of work allowed him to graduate with a Ph.D. Today most
awards of Ph.D. (Doctor of Philosophy) are not actually made for researching
philosophy, but Hans Christian Oersteds was. The philosophy in this case was
Immanuel Kants philosophy of nature, which as well see, helped shape Oersteds
view of the world.

The Science of Hans Christian Oersted

By the year 1800 Oersted had become a pharmacy manager. In this year a scientific
revolution began. Alessandro Volta announced details of his battery, opening new
scientific horizons for chemists and physicists. Voltas battery enabled scientists to
produce a steady flow of electricity for the first time and, happily, the materials
needed to build one were easily obtained.
Oersted dived into the new science and, in 1801, published a scientific paper
describing a new battery he had invented. He also described a method for
calculating the amount of electric current flowing by measuring the rate of gas
production when electricity was used to split water.
Oersted was given funding by the Danish government to further his education in
other European countries; he spent the years 1801 to 1803 in Germany and France.
In Germany he became influenced by the ideas of the philosopher Friedrich
Schelling who believed all of nature was unified. Rather grandly, Schelling
believed scientists should strive to find the theory underlying all of nature rather
than using experiments to study isolated parts of nature.

Andr-Marie Ampre
Andr-Marie Ampre made the revolutionary discovery that a wire carrying
electric current can attract or repel another wire next to it thats also carrying
electric current. The attraction is magnetic, but no magnets are necessary for the
effect to be seen. He went on to formulate Amperes Law of electromagnetism and
produced the best definition of electric current of his time.
Ampre also proposed the existence of a particle we now recognize as the electron,
discovered the chemical element fluorine, and he grouped elements by their
properties over half a century before Dmitri Mendeleev produced his periodic
table.
Andr-Marie Ampre was born into a well-to-do family in the city of Lyon, France,
on January 20, 1775. His father was Jean-Jacques Ampre, a businessman; his
mother was Jeanne Antoinette Desutires-Sarcey, the orphaned daughter of a silk-

merchant. Andr-Maries parents already had a daughter, Antoinette, born two

years before Andr-Marie.
It was an intellectually exciting period in French history; Antoine Lavoisier was
revolutionizing chemistry; and Voltaire and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, the leaders of
the French enlightenment, were urging that society should be founded on science,
logic and reason rather than the religious teachings of the Catholic Church.
When Andr-Marie was five years old, his family moved to a country estate near
the village of Poleymieux about six miles (10 km) from Lyon. His father had
grown so wealthy that he no longer needed to spend much time in the city. A
second daughter Josephine was born when Andr-Marie was eight.
An Unusual Education
The education Andr-Marie received was rather unusual. His father was a great
admirer of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, one of the leaders of the French enlightenment.
He decided to follow Rousseaus approach for Andr-Maries education. This
meant no formal lessons.
Andr-Marie could do as he pleased, learning about anything he felt like. He was
also allowed to read anything he wanted to from his fathers large library. A recipe
for disaster, you may think? In fact, it worked! And it worked exceptionally well.
Andr-Marie developed an insatiable thirst for knowledge, going as far as learning
entire pages of an encyclopedia by heart.
Although a child of the French Enlightenment, Andr-Marie did not reject the
church, and he remained a practicing Catholic throughout his life.