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History of Electricity. Thales of Miletus. Greek philosopher, mathematician, and scientist 600 B.C. - amber becomes charged by rubbing The Greek word for amber is elektron . Amber attracted objects when rubbed Believed amber contained a psyche (soul). Jerome Cardan (1501-1576).
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Thales of Miletus • Greek philosopher, mathematician, and scientist • 600 B.C. - amber becomes charged by rubbing • The Greek word for amber is elektron. • Amber attracted objects when rubbed • Believed amber contained a psyche (soul)
Jerome Cardan (1501-1576) • amber attracts lightweight objects (such as straw, cotton fibers, etc.) • he mineral magnetite attracts only iron.
William Gilbert (1540-1603) • Queen Elizabeth I's doctor • named electricity for the Greek word elektron for amber • if two non-metal rods were rubbed briskly, they behaved similarly to amber • called those materials electrics (materials that we call insulators today) • Believed some type of fluid was responsible for this action (FLUID MODEL)
Fluid model of electricity • one-fluid model of electricity • a physical transfer of the single fluid occurred when an object became electrically charged, leaving one surface with 'negative' charge and one with 'positive' charge
Otto von Guericke (1602-1686) • von Guericke invented a another machine for producing static electricity. • It consisted of a ball of sulfur that was hand-rotated by a crank. • A piece of wood held against this sphere would produce a large spark. • Eventually evolved into: • Van de Graaf generator
Charles DuFay (1730's) • charged pieces of glass repelled other glass-like materials, but attracted substances similar to amber. • two kinds of electricity must exist. He called these vitreous ("glassy") and resinous (amber-like). • DuFay had discovered negative and positive electric charge, although he thought they were actually two types of electric "fluid." (TWO FLUID MODEL)
two-fluid model of electricity • Two fluids exist • like fluids repelled, unlike attracted
Pieter van Musschenbroek • invented the Leyden Jar, which stores electric charge
Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) • The theory in Franklin's time was that electricity was some kind of fluid • objects had too much fluid, they would repel each other • but they would attract objects with too little fluid • object with an excess of fluid touched an object with too little fluid, then the fluid would be shared.
Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) • Franklin used the term positive for what he thought was an excess of electric fluid • negative for a deficiency of fluid.
Models change over Time • Science is an ever changing discipline • With each new bit of information new models have to be introduced to explain the new phenomenon