ECN Forum Forums Technical Discussion Electrical Theory and Applications Who invented wire for conducting electricity?

Who invented wire for conducting electricity?

by Ed Pores

Here is an alternate possibility, suggesting that the use of wire and electricity is much older than might commonly be imagined: http://www.iranchamber.com/history/articles/parthian_battery.php

-Jon

Say what you like, it was Good Ol' Ben Franklin!!
All the others: (Volta etc. ) mere big-heads and strutting pretenders!

As Ben said:

"The greatest monarch on the proudest throne is obliged to sit upon his own arse."

Alan

History:17th-18th Century Electricity.

1600. William Gilbert, physician to Elizabeth I of England, coins the term 'electra' for objects holding static electrical charges. cf. greek electra = amber
1646. Sir Thomas Browne, physician, first uses word 'electricity'..."a power to attract strawes or light bodies, and convert the needle lightly placed."
1729. Stephen Grey, English scientist, demonstrates transfer of static charges over 450 ft of wet hemp thread, and repeats the experiment over longer distances with a brass wire.
1746. Jean-Antoine Nollet, French physicist, in a demonstration to Louis XV, electrocutes 180 Royal Guards.
1747-1752 Ben Franklin shows lightning is electricity, coins +ve and -ve, invents the lightning conductor, describes a battery in a letter, flies the kite in a thunderstorm. Also invents a woodstove, watertight compartments for ships, the odometer, bifocals etc. etc.
1769 Edward Bancroft, American scientist, shows that shocks from Torpedo fish could be insulated from, or conducted by, suitable materials.
1775 Abildgard electrocutes a chicken. "Later, it laid an egg."
1780 Galvani notices that a frog's leg he has just cut off twitches when touched with an electrified scalpel.
1792 Volta constucts his voltaic pile, (a battery). This is 40 years after Franklin's description.
Galvani uses one to kill frogs.

So, we have Volts, Galvanometers but no Franklins. Why is that?

Alan

PS, So apart from static electricity, Franklin invents the metal (lightning) conductor and the battery. The defense rests its case!

PPS, Further research reveals: Franklin had an experiment running in his house, with a lightning conductor on the roof, and an arrangement of wire conductors, glass tubes for arcs, bells etc. to a ground rod running down the stairs in his house. A letter from his wife to him while he is visiting England, reveals her begging instructions on how to dismantle the bloody thing as it's driving her nuts! So, Franklin gets house wiring and grounding electrodes added to the list as well!



[This message has been edited by Alan Belson (edited 06-19-2005).]

[This message has been edited by Alan Belson (edited 06-19-2005).]

[This message has been edited by Alan Belson (edited 06-20-2005).]

"So, we have Volts, Galvanometers but no Franklins. Why is that?"

Guess they just don't pay us well enough $$$



[This message has been edited by IanR (edited 06-23-2005).]

Come to think of it, other 'greats' have missed out on the 'name-that-unit' lottery too.
Einstein, Edison, Swann.
Any more?

Alan,
At least Einstein had a chemical element named after him.
Einsteinium has an Atomic No. of 99.