Story Of Electricity -(I)

SPARK (I) – The Intro

In the beginning of the 18^th century, it all started. A bizarre phenomenon, a shock which no one thought would create the most essential factor for human survival in later years. In 1705, Sir Isaac Newton took control of the Royal Society of London (RSL) after the death of Robert Hooke. Franklin Hauksbee, head of the demonstration in RSL were there for assisting Newton. In November 1705, Hauksbee created “The Hauksbee Machine” as an experiment on static electricity. This machine was however used by street magicians to awe the public. No one including Hauksbee himself never realized the importance of this machine. Slowly when this phenomenon was more talked and discussed among scholars and eminent personalities at that time, they began calling themselves” ELECTRICIAN”- someone keen on electricity and its effects. 

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As this new phenomenon gained its popularity and became a center of research, a silk dyer Stephen Grey gave the idea of Insulators and Conductors. This classification is one of the basics of Electric world we study now. One of the main drawback that time was How to store electricity? Creating a method or equipment for storing electricity was the biggest research subject at that time. Leiden in Holland was the center of electrical research back then and during 1745–1746, a breakthrough took place. Ewald Georg von Kleist, A German Jurist, and Pieter van Musschenbroek, A Dutch Scientist created a device to store electricity and it was named LEIDEN JAR, in the honor of city where it was invented. By that time, no one had any idea about How Leiden Jar worked and this was the next big question. 

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Benjamin Franklin, a colonial American philosophically at war with the British Elite gained the credit for rationally explain natural phenomenon “Lightning” because of the famous Kite and Key Experiment in 1752. However, there is am ambiguity to the fact that the lightning experiment happened without Benjamin.  In May 1752, George Louis Leclerc also known as Compte De Buffon and Thomas Francis Dallibard repeated the lightning experiment in Marly La Ville, Paris, France by using a 40 feet metal rod and a wine bottle acting as Leiden Jar. However, Franklin is regarded as the Father of Electricity. He was able to explain the working of Leiden Jar and defined excessive charge as Positive (+) and lesser charge as Negative (-).

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Another Discovery of electricity in animals lead to a parallel research field which was called "AnimalElectricity”. Torpedo fish stink was similar to electrical shock but with no spark. In 1773, Henry Cavendish made an artificial torpedo fish which gave sparks. Also the terms to quantify electricity (Now called Electric Charge) and intensity of electricity (Now called Potential Difference or Voltage) This new found discovery lead to a question about the relation of animal electricity and electricity produced by materials. The eagerness to answer this question lead to a very first professional rivalry in Electric world between two Italian Academicians, who are Luigi Aloisio Galvani and Alessandro Volta. What were the differences between them and how this rivalry affected. Electric World……? To be Continued in Next Part

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