Inventor of Electric Current: This is the History and Characters

Erome - Currently electricity has become a primary need for many people. Now all technology requires electric current to make it easier for humans to use. Almost every aspect of our lives is related to electricity. Looking at PLN data, the electricity consumption of the Indonesian population will reach 146 terawatt hours (TWh) in January to July 2021. This number has increased by 4.44% compared to 2020.

This data is only collected in Indonesia. Imagine collecting all the data about the world's electrical energy consumption. The world will be dark without lights (candles, flashlights, and other lighting), electronic devices such as cell phones and laptops will turn off at some point, and telephone towers will go down.

That is, there is no long-distance communication or the Internet. All machines or technology that consume electricity will stop working, vehicles without lights, traffic lights will turn off, industry will die (except agriculture), and many other worst things will certainly have a negative impact on the world economy.

Electricity as part of a natural phenomenon has actually been known to humans for a long time. The existence of electricity occurs naturally and has been studied by various scientists for thousands of years. However, the use of electricity in our daily lives is completely new in human history. Man has studied electricity for a long time, but could not use it in everyday life.

Well, until finally several great scientists were born, such as Benjamin Franklin, Michael Faraday, Nikola Tesla, then we were able to find ways and tools to use electricity in our daily lives.

History of the Journey to the Discovery of Electric Current

The electricity we use today has been proven to be a trivial phenomenon. It was proposed by the Greek thinker Thales, who lived and founded in 640546 BC. He was just starting to see amber and shards of cat fur that could be pulled as dry grass. Thales was still surprised at the time, but his notes showed that ancient people had already observed the phenomenon of static electricity.

Thales' electrostatic phenomena became famous in the early 18th century. At that time, people used static electricity for entertainment, that is, for damage. People started rubbing glass rods on woolen cloth and touching everyone in shock, even Louis XV did it. He could be fainted by him because he once ordered his army of 180 people to join hands.

From the city of Baghdad, there is also a big mystery about the history of electricity. A 2000 year old relic was discovered in the form of a vase containing a composite structure resembling a wet battery. It is believed that this vase could be used as a medical device for electrotherapy. However, in the absence of clear evidence, this phenomenon is considered pure coincidence.

Electrical phenomena were later studied by the English scientist William Gilbert. In 1600 he was the first to investigate the existence of electric attraction and electric fields. Carl DuFay, a French chemist also observed in 1733 that electricity has two charges, positive and negative.

Talking about the history of electricity, how was this kind of energy first discovered, and who discovered the first electric current? this is a very long story. As Grameds knows, electricity has been around for a long time. This means that electricity was not discovered, but its use developed to make people's lives easier. Basically, electricity has existed in nature since ancient times.

Phases of Development of Electricity

To understand the history of the development of electric current, the following are the phases of electricity development based on discoveries made by scientists at that time:

1. Ancient Egypt

What about the first story of the discovery of electric current? Some sources say that the existence of electricity was first “recognized” from ancient Egyptian texts hundreds of years ago. At that time, Malapterurus Electricus was used as a treatment method in the Nile River. They know that there are fish that can actually transmit some energy. This can have a “paralyzing” effect on the body. This medicine, which is said to relieve pain and headaches, was practiced until the end of the 17th century.

2. Amber Thales from Miletus

In addition, the history of electricity is related to the interconnected work of the Greek philosopher and scientist Thales of Miletus around 600 BC. Thales wrote about rubbing amber with animal hair, which tried to create a flow of energy. The results of Thales' experiments are what we call static electricity. This stone is called electron in Latin and rectron in Greek.

3. Gilbert & Brown

The development of other experiments was continued in the 17th century by the English physicist William Gilbert. He wrote about a book called De Magnete. Gilbert was the first scientist to use the term electricity to describe the results of his experiments on electric force, magnetic force and electric attraction. Then Sir Thomas Brown, an English physicist, first mentioned the word electricity in his book to describe Gilbert's experiments.

4. Gericke by Charles Francois du Faye

In 1663, German scientist Otto Von Guericke conducted experiments that contributed to the history of electricity. He experimented with sulfur balls rotated with wooden sticks. His experiments are known as the beginning of generators. Gericke's work was continued by the French physicist Charles François du Fay, who defined the resin charge or negative (-) charge and the vitreous charge or positive (+) charge of that charge.

Figures who discovered electric current and their history

Based on the description of the history and development of electricity above, there are several figures who carried out major experiments on electricity and are considered the fathers of world electricity, who are they? Here is a short biography:

1. Benjamin Franklin

The problem of electricity was then researched by the famous American thinker and researcher named Benjamin Franklin. In 1751 Franklin succeeded in publishing a book about electricity entitled "Experiments and Observations on Electricity". This book contains his observations about the rapid growth of electricity due to static electricity.

Franklin mentioned in his book several electrical terms, such as the existence of two poles in the flow of electricity, namely the negative pole and the positive pole. Franklin considered lightning to be an electrical phenomenon. Not quite satisfied, he experimented directly with kites. If Grameds ever saw a picture of Franklin's lightning strike while flying a kite, it was wrong. But the story continues, namely that Franklin flew a kite attached to a sharp iron nail during the rain.

He wanted to prove that rain could cause a lot of static electricity. Then Franklin locked the metal lock at the bottom of the kite line, about 0.5 meters from the handlebars. Meanwhile, he used a silk attachment to the grip to prevent the anesthetic from getting on his hand directly. Without lightning, Franklin slowly tried to grab the shadow key, and finished. There was a small electric shock that pierced him.

This experiment shows that electricity and electrons move from the cloud to the positive electrode, the body itself. Franklin's experiments also showed that electricity could be explored, studied, and even controlled on a large scale. It made it viral all over the world and the study of electricity became interesting to study again.

Franklin's experiments were supported by his own son. From this experiment, it can be seen that there is a relationship between lightning and electricity. In his experiments, Franklin used other devices such as keys and Rayden Glass to store electricity.

Another unforgettable scientist was the Italian scientist Alessandro Volta. Of course Grameds knows who he is, right? Volta was the inventor of the first battery. Apart from that, Humphry Davy discovered the first arc lamp or light bulb in 1808. After 1820, Hans Christian Elstead, AM Ampere and DFG Arago succeeded in confirming the relationship between electricity and magnetism.

In 1831, Michael Faraday succeeded in inventing the dynamo. Since then, the use of electricity has become more sophisticated with the discovery of light bulbs that can emit light for a long time. We know the scientist who invented this lamp as Thomas Alva Edison.

2. Michael Faraday

After Franklin's experiments, there were many amazing discoveries about electricity. In 1800, Italian physicist Alessandro Volta succeeded in discovering the battery as a source of electricity. Humphry Davy also succeeded in converting electrical energy into light in 1808 with his arc lamp. These discoveries continued until they reached a British electrical scientist named Michael Faraday.

Michael Faraday was born in 1791 in New Inton. Faraday initially worked as a bookbinder and read many research notes. Because of his interest, he was invited to lectures by the famous scientist Humphry Davy, and even became an assistant in Davy's lab. Since then, reported by sciencehistory.org in 1813 Faraday began working at Davie and studied chemistry directly with him.

Who really was Sir Humphry Davy? Davy was one of the most famous chemists of his time. He discovered sodium and potassium, and then studied the decomposition of hydrochloric acid (hydrochloric acid). As a result, Davy discovered the element chlorine in 1822.

Faraday continued his research on electricity and magnetism until the 1820s. Until finally he married Sara Bernard in 1821 and lived at the Royal Institute. It was there that Faraday began his experiments, one of his noteworthy discoveries in electromagnetic phenomena. Through the battery, he observed that the copper coil connected to the battery caused a magnetic field. Then Faraday hypothesized that if electricity could make magnets, then magnets could also make electricity.

Faraday also used a copper coil to wrap a magnet, but found that current flowed as the magnet moved. As a result, Faraday concluded that a magnet moving inside a closed copper coil produced an electric current. From this experiment, Faraday discovered the existence of electromagnetic induction, and from this research, Faraday made his first discovery in the field of physics, namely the electric motor. Faraday's discovery helped build today's electric motors.

After that, this electromagnetic induction became the precursor to the dynamo and was able to produce electrical energy with kinetic energy (motion). Until 1931, he demonstrated the dynamo through its electromagnetic induction. Thanks to this ingenious discovery, he is called the father of electricity in the world which allows him to use electricity directly.

In 1839, Michael Faraday suffered from memory impairment. Since then, Faraday's health began to deteriorate. He began to reduce his studies, but continued to work as a teacher until 1861. At the age of 75, the discoverer of electric current died on August 25, 1867, while studying at his home in Hampton Court. He was buried at Highgate Cemetery in north London. A plaque was erected to commemorate his monumental work in Westminster Abbey Church near Isaac Newton's burial.

Faraday is known as the father of electricity because his discoveries have made electricity a very useful technology to this day. But Michael Faraday's life was not as simple as we think. He came from a poor family and worked hard on his own to gain most of his knowledge.

3. Nikola Tesla

Born July 10, 1856, Nikola Tesla was an inventor of alternating electric current and radio who was famous for his genius. Nikola Tesla was born in Croatia and raised in a family of orthodox priests. Initially, his father recommended Tesla to become a priest, but he preferred science. From biography, Nikola Tesla graduated from Charles University. In the 1870s he moved to Budapest and worked for a telephone company.

It was in this city that Nikola Tesla came up with the idea of ​​building an electric motor. At the age of 28, he decided to leave Europe and move to the United States (US). Nikola Tesla worked for Thomas Edison's company on Uncle Sam's land. Only in 1884, he officially worked in Edison's office in the DC industry. These two scientists quickly worked to develop many innovations. This innovation was primarily Edison's invention. Unfortunately, their collaboration did not last long.

Due to disagreements, Nikola Tesla decided to stop working with Edison. Edison was business oriented and not Tesla's mindset. In 1885, Nikola Tesla began his own invention. Relying on history, he created more than 30 patents for his inventions in 1887 and 1888. Nikola Tesla has made many inventions throughout his life that are useful today, such as AC systems with power, Radio remote control, High voltage transformer electric motors.

Despite his many discoveries, Nikola Tesla was not immediately respected. In fact, he is often considered crazy because his original ideas are considered strange. In 1895, Nikola Tesla's laboratory was burned down. Many records of his discoveries were also burned. After the fire, Nikola Tesla continued to be unhappy. In 1917 he went bankrupt.

Nikola Tesla spent the rest of his life working on new inventions. When he first launched History, his obsession with No. 3 made Tesla think about mental illness. Nikola Tesla's days were ultimately spent feeding pigeons. Due to the disturbance he experienced, Tesla even claimed to be able to communicate with pigeons. Nikola Tesla died in a hotel room in New York on January 7, 1943. He died at the age of 86.

So, that's an explanation of the history of the inventors of electric current. If Grameds asked who actually discovered electricity first in the world, the answer would be long, because each scientist completed and contributed to the comfort of our lives today in every experiment.

Discovery can always be thought of in a way that develops into a unique story, so it's not that important to discuss it. Maybe Benjamin Franklin was able to spark the problem of electrical phenomena, but Faraday was able to turn Franklin's ideas into a bigger spark, electricity in use. Of course, the great inventor began with a deep observation of science.

Grameds can learn a lot from the inspiring stories of influential figures in the world for their great works through the Gramedia book collection at www.gramedia.com , such as the following recommendations for stories of inspiring world figures: Happy learning. #FriendsWithoutBoundaries.

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