Editing Electricity (section)

== History ==
{{Main|History of electromagnetic theory|History of electrical engineering}}
{{See also|Etymology of electricity}}
[[File:Thales.jpg|thumb|upright|alt=A bust of a bearded man with dishevelled hair|[[Thales]], the earliest known researcher into electricity]]

Long before any knowledge of electricity existed, people were aware of shocks from [[electric fish]]. [[Ancient Egypt]]ian texts dating from [[28th century BC|2750 BCE]] described them as the "protectors" of all other fish. Electric fish were again reported millennia later by [[ancient Greek]], [[Roman Empire|Roman]] and [[Science in the medieval Islamic world|Arabic naturalists]] and [[Islamic medicine|physicians]].<ref>{{citation|title=Review: Electric Fish|first1=Peter|last1=Moller|journal=BioScience|volume=41|issue=11|date=December 1991|pages=794–96 [794]|doi=10.2307/1311732|jstor=1311732|publisher=[[American Institute of Biological Sciences]]|last2=Kramer|first2=Bernd}}</ref> Several ancient writers, such as [[Pliny the Elder]] and [[Scribonius Largus]], attested to the numbing effect of [[electric shock]]s delivered by [[electric catfish]] and [[electric ray]]s, and knew that such shocks could travel along conducting objects.<ref name=Electroreception>
{{citation
| first = Theodore H. | last = Bullock
| title = Electroreception
| pages = 5–7
| publisher = Springer
| year = 2005
| isbn = 978-0-387-23192-1}}
</ref> Patients with ailments such as [[gout]] or [[headache]] were directed to touch electric fish in the hope that the powerful jolt might cure them.<ref name=morris>
{{citation
| first = Simon C.
| last = Morris
| title = Life's Solution: Inevitable Humans in a Lonely Universe
| pages = [https://archive.org/details/lifessolutionine01conw/page/182 182–85]
| publisher = Cambridge University Press
| year = 2003
| isbn = 0-521-82704-3
| url = https://archive.org/details/lifessolutionine01conw/page/182
}}</ref>

Ancient cultures around the [[Mediterranean Sea|Mediterranean]] knew that certain objects, such as rods of [[amber]], could be rubbed with cat's fur to attract light objects like feathers. [[Thales of Miletus]] made a series of observations on [[static electricity]] around 600 BCE, from which he believed that friction rendered amber [[magnetic]], in contrast to minerals such as [[magnetite]], which needed no rubbing.<ref name=stewart>
{{Citation
| first = Joseph | last= Stewart
| title = Intermediate Electromagnetic Theory
| publisher = World Scientific
| year = 2001
| page = 50
| isbn = 981-02-4471-1}}
</ref><ref>
{{Citation
| first = Brian | last = Simpson
| title = Electrical Stimulation and the Relief of Pain
| publisher = Elsevier Health Sciences
| year = 2003
| pages = 6–7
| isbn =0-444-51258-6}}
</ref><ref>{{citation
|url=http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0004.tlg001.perseus-eng1:1.1
|author=Diogenes Laertius
|title=Lives of Eminent Philosophers, Book 1 Chapter 1 [24]
|quote=Aristotle and Hippias affirm that, arguing from the magnet and from amber, he attributed a soul or life even to inanimate objects.
|editor=R.D. Hicks
|website=Perseus Digital Library
|publisher=Tufts University
|access-date=5 February 2017
|archive-date=30 July 2022
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220730093513/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0004.tlg001.perseus-eng1:1.1
|url-status=live
}}</ref><ref>{{citation
|url=http://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/soul.1.i.html#244
|author=Aristotle
|title=De Animus (On the Soul) Book 1 Part 2 (B4 verso)
|quote=Thales, too, to judge from what is recorded about him, seems to have held soul to be a motive force, since he said that the magnet has a soul in it because it moves the iron.
|translator=J.A. Smith
|website=The Internet Classics Archive
|editor=Daniel C. Stevenson
|access-date=5 February 2017
|archive-date=26 February 2017
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170226025346/http://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/soul.1.i.html#244
|url-status=live
}}</ref> Thales was incorrect in believing the attraction was due to a magnetic effect, but later science would prove a link between magnetism and electricity. According to a controversial theory, the [[Parthia]]ns may have had knowledge of [[electroplating]], based on the 1936 discovery of the [[Baghdad Battery]], which resembles a [[galvanic cell]], though it is uncertain whether the artefact was electrical in nature.<ref>{{Citation
| first = Arran
| last = Frood
| title = Riddle of 'Baghdad's batteries'
| publisher = BBC
| date = 27 February 2003
| access-date = 2008-02-16
| url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/2804257.stm
| archive-date = 2017-09-03
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20170903033419/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/2804257.stm
| url-status = live
}}</ref>
[[File:Franklin-Benjamin-LOC.jpg|thumb|left|upright|alt=A half-length portrait of a bald, somewhat portly man in a three-piece suit.|[[Benjamin Franklin]] conducted extensive research on electricity in the 18th century, as documented by [[Joseph Priestley]] (1767) ''History and Present Status of Electricity'', with whom Franklin carried on extended correspondence.]]

Electricity would remain little more than an intellectual curiosity for millennia until 1600, when the English scientist [[William Gilbert (astronomer)|William Gilbert]] wrote ''[[De&nbsp;Magnete]]'', in which he made a careful study of electricity and magnetism, distinguishing the [[lodestone]] effect from static electricity produced by rubbing amber.<ref name=stewart/> He coined the [[Neo-Latin]] word ''electricus'' ("of amber" or "like amber", from ἤλεκτρον, ''elektron'', the [[Ancient Greek|Greek]] word for "amber") to refer to the property of attracting small objects after being rubbed.<ref>
{{Citation
| first = Brian | last = Baigrie
| title = Electricity and Magnetism: A Historical Perspective
| publisher = Greenwood Press
| year = 2007
| pages = 7–8
| isbn = 978-0-313-33358-3}}
</ref> This association gave rise to the English words "electric" and "electricity", which made their first appearance in print in [[Thomas Browne]]'s ''[[Pseudodoxia Epidemica]]'' of 1646.<ref>
{{Citation
| first = Gordon | last = Chalmers
| title = The Lodestone and the Understanding of Matter in Seventeenth Century England
| journal = Philosophy of Science
| year = 1937
| volume = 4
| issue = 1
| pages = 75–95
| doi = 10.1086/286445| s2cid = 121067746
}}</ref> [[Isaac Newton]] made early investigations into electricity,<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Sanford |first=Fernando |date=1921 |title=Some Early Theories Regarding Electrical Forces – The Electric Emanation Theory |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/6312 |journal=The Scientific Monthly |volume=12 |issue=6 |pages=544–550 |bibcode=1921SciMo..12..544S |issn=0096-3771}}</ref> with an idea of his written down in his book ''[[Opticks]]'' arguably the beginning of the [[Field (physics)|field theory]] of the electric force.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Rowlands |first=Peter |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=u0NBDwAAQBAJ&dq=Isaac+Newton+field+theory+electricity+dispersion&pg=PA109 |title=Newton - Innovation And Controversy |publisher=[[World Scientific Publishing]] |year=2017 |isbn=9781786344045 |pages=109 |language=en}}</ref>

Further work was conducted in the 17th and early 18th centuries by [[Otto von Guericke]], [[Robert Boyle]], [[Stephen Gray (scientist)|Stephen Gray]] and [[C. F. du Fay]].<ref name="guarnieri 7-1">{{citation|last=Guarnieri|first=M.|year=2014|title=Electricity in the age of Enlightenment|journal=IEEE Industrial Electronics Magazine|volume=8|issue=3|pages=60–63|doi=10.1109/MIE.2014.2335431|s2cid=34246664}}</ref> Later in the 18th century, [[Benjamin Franklin]] conducted extensive research in electricity, selling his possessions to fund his work. In June 1752 he is reputed to have attached a metal key to the bottom of a dampened kite string and [[Kite experiment#Franklin's kite experiment|flown the kite in a storm-threatened sky]].<ref>
{{citation
| first = James
| last = Srodes
| title = Franklin: The Essential Founding Father
| pages = [https://archive.org/details/franklinessentia0000srod/page/92 92–94]
| year = 2002
| publisher = Regnery Publishing
| isbn = 0-89526-163-4
| url = https://archive.org/details/franklinessentia0000srod/page/92
}}. It is uncertain if Franklin personally carried out this experiment, but it is popularly attributed to him.</ref> A succession of sparks jumping from the key to the back of his hand showed that [[lightning]] was indeed electrical in nature.<ref>{{Citation
| last = Uman
| first = Martin
| author-link = Martin A. Uman
| title = All About Lightning
| publisher = Dover Publications
| year = 1987
| url = https://archive.org/details/allaboutlightnin0000uman
| format = PDF
| isbn =0-486-25237-X
}}</ref> He also explained the apparently paradoxical behavior<ref>{{Citation
| last=Riskin
| first=Jessica
| title=Poor Richard's Leyden Jar: Electricity and economy in Franklinist France
| year=1998
| url=http://www.stanford.edu/dept/HPS/poorrichard.pdf
| page=327
| access-date=2014-05-11
| archive-date=2014-05-12
| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140512220545/http://www.stanford.edu/dept/HPS/poorrichard.pdf
| url-status=live
}}</ref> of the [[Leyden jar]] as a device for storing large amounts of electrical charge in terms of electricity consisting of both positive and negative charges.<ref name="guarnieri 7-1"/>

[[File:M Faraday Th Phillips oil 1842.jpg|thumb|upright|alt=Half-length portrait oil painting of a man in a dark suit |[[Michael Faraday]]'s discoveries formed the foundation of electric motor technology.]]

In 1775, Hugh Williamson reported a series of experiments to the Royal Society on the shocks delivered by the [[electric eel]];<ref>{{citation
|last=Williamson 
|first=Hugh 
|date=1775 
|title=Experiments and observations on the ''Gymnotus electricus'', or electric eel 
|journal=[[Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society]] 
|volume=65 
|issue=65 
|pages=94–101 
|doi=10.1098/rstl.1775.0011 
|s2cid=186211272 
|url=https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/epdf/10.1098/rstl.1775.0011 
|access-date=2022-07-16 
|archive-date=2022-07-30 
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220730093501/https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/epdf/10.1098/rstl.1775.0011 
|url-status=live 
}}</ref> that same year the surgeon and anatomist [[John Hunter (surgeon)|John Hunter]] described the structure of the fish's [[Electric organ (fish)|electric organ]]s.<ref name="Edwards 2021">{{citation |last1=Edwards |first1=Paul |title=A Correction to the Record of Early Electrophysiology Research on the 250th Anniversary of a Historic Expedition to Île de Ré |url=https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-03423498/document |publisher=HAL open-access archive |access-date= |date=10 November 2021}}</ref><ref name="Hunter 1775">{{citation
|last=Hunter 
|first=John 
|author-link=John Hunter (surgeon) 
|year=1775 
|title=An account of the ''Gymnotus electricus'' 
|journal=Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London 
|issue=65 
|pages=395–407 
|url=https://archive.org/details/philtrans01229060 }}</ref> In 1791, [[Luigi Galvani]] published his discovery of [[bioelectromagnetics]], demonstrating that electricity was the medium by which [[neuron]]s passed signals to the muscles.<ref name="guarnieri 7-2">{{citation
|last=Guarnieri
|first=M.
|year=2014
|title=The Big Jump from the Legs of a Frog
|journal=IEEE Industrial Electronics Magazine
|volume=8
|issue=4
|pages=59–61, 69
|doi=10.1109/MIE.2014.2361237
|s2cid=39105914}}</ref><ref name=kirby>
{{citation
| first = Richard S.
| last = Kirby
| title = Engineering in History
| pages = [https://archive.org/details/engineeringinhis0000unse/page/331 331–33]
| year = 1990
| publisher = Courier Dover Publications
| isbn =0-486-26412-2
| url = https://archive.org/details/engineeringinhis0000unse/page/331
}}
</ref><ref name="guarnieri 7-1"/> [[Alessandro Volta]]'s battery, or [[voltaic pile]], of 1800, made from alternating layers of zinc and copper, provided scientists with a more reliable source of electrical energy than the [[electrostatic machine]]s previously used.<ref name="guarnieri 7-2"/><ref name=kirby/> The recognition of [[electromagnetism]], the unity of electric and magnetic phenomena, is due to [[Hans Christian Ørsted]] and [[André-Marie Ampère]] in 1819–1820. [[Michael Faraday]] invented the [[electric motor]] in 1821, and [[Georg Ohm]] mathematically analysed the electrical circuit in 1827.<ref name=kirby/> Electricity and magnetism (and light) were definitively linked by [[James Clerk Maxwell]], in particular in his "[[On Physical Lines of Force]]" in 1861 and 1862.<ref name=berkson/>{{rp|p=148}}

While the early 19th century had seen rapid progress in electrical science, the late 19th century would see the greatest progress in [[electrical engineering]]. Through such people as [[Alexander Graham Bell]], [[Ottó Bláthy]], [[Thomas Edison]], [[Galileo Ferraris]], [[Oliver Heaviside]], [[Ányos Jedlik]], [[William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin]], [[Charles Algernon Parsons]], [[Werner von Siemens]], [[Joseph Swan]], [[Reginald Fessenden]], [[Nikola Tesla]] and [[George Westinghouse]], electricity turned from a scientific curiosity into an essential tool for modern life.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=m02DqlNQxqAC&pg=PA130 |page=130 |title=Introduction to Environmental Physics |author1=Nigel Mason |author2=N.J. Mason |author3=Peter Hughes |author4=Randall McMullan |year=2001 |isbn= 978-0-7484-0765-1 |publisher=[[Taylor & Francis]]}}</ref>

In 1887, [[Heinrich Hertz]]<ref name=uniphysics/>{{rp|843–44}}<ref name="Hertz1887">{{citation|first=Heinrich|last=Hertz|title=Ueber den Einfluss des ultravioletten Lichtes auf die electrische Entladung|journal=[[Annalen der Physik]]|volume=267|issue=8|pages=S. 983–1000|year=1887|doi=10.1002/andp.18872670827|bibcode=1887AnP...267..983H|url=https://zenodo.org/record/1423827|access-date=2019-08-25|archive-date=2020-06-11|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200611081356/https://zenodo.org/record/1423827|url-status=live}}</ref> discovered that [[electrode]]s illuminated with ultraviolet light create [[electric spark]]s more easily. In 1905, [[Albert Einstein]] published a paper that explained experimental data from the [[photoelectric effect]] as being the result of light energy being carried in discrete quantized packets, energising electrons. This discovery led to the [[quantum]] revolution. Einstein was awarded the [[Nobel Prize in Physics]] in 1921 for "his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect".<ref>{{cite web |title=The Nobel Prize in Physics 1921 |publisher=Nobel Foundation |url=http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1921/index.html |access-date=2013-03-16 |archive-date=2008-10-17 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081017151250/http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1921/index.html |url-status=live}}</ref> The photoelectric effect is also employed in [[photocell]]s such as can be found in [[solar panel]]s.

The first [[solid-state electronics|solid-state device]] was the "[[cat's-whisker detector]]" first used in the 1900s in radio receivers. A whisker-like wire is placed lightly in contact with a solid crystal (such as a [[germanium]] crystal) to detect a [[radio]] signal by the contact junction effect.<ref>{{citation|url=http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/solid+state|title=Solid state|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180721043608/http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/solid+state |archive-date=2018-07-21 |website=The Free Dictionary}}</ref> In a solid-state component, the [[Electric current|current]] is confined to solid elements and compounds engineered specifically to switch and amplify it. Current flow can be understood in two forms: as negatively charged [[electron]]s, and as positively charged electron deficiencies called [[electron hole|holes]]. These charges and holes are understood in terms of quantum physics. The building material is most often a crystalline [[semiconductor]].<ref>{{citation|last=Blakemore|first=John Sydney|year=1985|title=Solid state physics|pages=1–3|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=}}</ref><ref>{{citation|last1=Jaeger|first1=Richard C.|last2=Blalock|first2=Travis N.|year=2003|title=Microelectronic circuit design|pages=46–47|publisher=McGraw-Hill Professional|isbn=0-07-250503-6}}</ref>

[[Solid-state electronics]] came into its own with the emergence of [[transistor]] technology. The first working transistor, a [[germanium]]-based [[point-contact transistor]], was invented by [[John Bardeen]] and [[Walter Houser Brattain]] at [[Bell Labs]] in 1947,<ref>{{citation |title=1947: Invention of the Point-Contact Transistor |url=https://www.computerhistory.org/siliconengine/invention-of-the-point-contact-transistor/ |website=[[Computer History Museum]] |access-date=10 August 2019 |archive-date=30 September 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210930151529/https://www.computerhistory.org/siliconengine/invention-of-the-point-contact-transistor/ |url-status=live }}</ref> followed by the [[bipolar junction transistor]] in 1948.<ref>{{citation |title=1948: Conception of the Junction Transistor |url=https://www.computerhistory.org/siliconengine/conception-of-the-junction-transistor/ |website=The Silicon Engine |publisher=[[Computer History Museum]] |access-date=8 October 2019 |archive-date=30 July 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200730232353/https://www.computerhistory.org/siliconengine/conception-of-the-junction-transistor/ |url-status=live }}</ref>