BCP 101 EL: v2 (First Timers)

HISTORY OF ELECTRICITY:  Electricity was originally called electricus by the English physicist, William Gilbert in the 1600’s.

HISTORY OF ELECTRICITY:  In 1752, Benjamin Franklin did the kite experiment where he put a key on the string of a kite and flew it in a storm.  The idea was that lightning would strike the key and transmit electricity down the string to his beanery jar.

HISTORY OF ELECTRICITY:  It’s believed that Ben Franklin didn’t die in his unwise kite-in-the-storm experiment because lighting never struck the key on his kite string.  Instead, the charge building in the cloud is believed to have moved down the string. 

HISTORY OF ELECTRICITY:  From his key-string discovery, Franklin became convinced that a rod on top of a building would draw lighting to itself. He thought that if a wire was attached to the rod and run to another rod which was pounded into the ground, that this would transfer the power of the bolt to the ground and dissipate it.

HISTORY OF ELECTRICITY:  Joseph Priestly was instrumental in hurling electricity progress fast-forward.  Priestly wrote “the History Of Electricity” which was used for over 200 years.

HISTORY OF ELECTRICITY ANIMATION:  Luigi Galvani, the Italian physician, demonstrated that neurons use electricity to pass signals to muscles by making dead lizard legs twitch with electric shocks.

HISTORY OF ELECTRICITY ANIMATION:  When 1800 hit, along came Alessandro Volta’s battery-like voltaic pile which used a stack of alternating layers of lead and copper metal.

HISTORY OF ELECTRICITY ANIMATION:  Michael Faraday rolled out the beginnings of the electric motor in 1821.

HISTORY OF ELECTRICITY ANIMATION: Tesla followed with his genius Tesla coil and its huge 125-foot sparks and the Westinghouse-funded New York City Niagara Power Station–and a truckload more.

HISTORY OF ELECTRICITY ANIMATION: Alexander Graham Bell’s phone and a host of other electrical game changers– including radio and TV–drove the use of electricity through the roof.