Story by ABIGAIL ENGLEMAN
Around 600 B.C.
Catching static electricity in action
Thales, an ancient Greek “thinker,” notices that amber attracts small objects when rubbed with fur.
1600
It's 'electric' (boogie woogie woogie!)
An English scientist coins the term “electricus" to describe the property Thales observed centuries before. From the Greek word for amber, the word later engenders the terms "electricity" and "electron."
1752
Sly as a kite
Brainy Ben Franklin takes one for the team by tying a key to a kite during a thunderstorm. He convinces the world that static electricity and lightning are, in fact, the same thing.
1800
Taking charge
Alessandro Volta learns to store steady, reliable electrical currents in the first batteries.
1820
Match made in science
Some astute scientists question whether something's going on between electricity and magnetism. After observing them together on numerous occasions, they confirm their suspicions with a series of discoveries; electromagnetism becomes the "it couple" of the century.
1832
Faraday furthers the field
Michael Faraday uses electricity to split compounds into individual elements, a process termed "electrolysis." He is also to thank for the principles of electromagnetic induction, generation and transmission.
1865
Maxwell makes waves
James Clerk Maxwell proposes that electromagnetism exists as waves travelling the speed of light, backing this revolutionary thought with his equations.
1878
The world gets lit
Joseph Swan and Thomas Edison invent and develop the light bulb, changing forever the way we see the world.
1894
Name recognition
George Johnstone Stoney proposes a fundamental unit of electricity called the "electron."
1897
Science goes subatomic
J.J. Thompson's experiments conclude the existence of the tiny, negatively charged particles named by Stoney.
1911
Fast and frosty
Heike Kamerlingh Onnes discovers that, at extremely low temperatures, electrical resistance in mercury drops to zip, a phenomenon that came to be called superconductivity.
1931
Coming into focus
Ernst Ruska builds the first electron microscope. Using beams of electrons to create images, it provides greater resolution and magnification than light microscopes.
1975
Peering beyond the skin
Godfrey Hounsfield and Allan Cormack invent a new use for X-rays (which, like light, are produced by the movement of electrons in atoms). Their system uses X-rays in CT scans to look inside the body’s tissues.
1989
Electrons connect us, part 1
Tim Berners Lee invents the World Wide Web, which combined electronic networks around the world to create what we now know as the internet.
2017
Electrons connect us, part 2
There are 5.1 billion cell phone subscribers worldwide. We have electrons to thank for that.
