I posted before on Benjamin Franklin and how despite what my education would have me believe, he did a whole lot more cool things than fly kites and invent stoves.
And, of course, he discovered electricity!
But in my adult mind, something doesn’t seem right. Surely he had some sort of knowledge that lightning was something other than light and heat, else why would he come to the conclusion that flying a kite would do anything other than burn it?
So I decided to do some research to see what was up…
Turns out electricity was discovered long, long before Mr. Franklin came around. There’s evidence that even the Mesopotamians had some knowledge. And static electricity was also a known concept in science before Franklin came around.
Turns out Franklin was testing out his hypothesis that lightning was electricity. He, of course, was correct, and essentially proved that lightning was electricity. He did not discover electricty. Great man, yes. Father of electricity, no.
This of course led me to another question: Who first HARNESSED electricity?
Better question is: Why don’t I know this? Shouldn’t this have been mentioned along with Franklin and Edison? (and why isn’t Tesla mentioned more often? Damn I love Tesla)
I mean, discovering it is really great, don’t get me wrong, but someone HARNESSING it is how all of our handy devices work.
Well, two answers to that (its Zel’s educational corner!):
1. Those ancient Mesopotamians had a device that used electroplating (think lemon battery from Mr. Wizard, or look it up) to generate a mild shock. Its not known what it was used for, but they harnessed a small amount, nonetheless.
2. Alessandro Giuseppe Antonio Anastasio Volta (damn I love that long name), guy who lived around the same time as Franklin, but who made what is accepted as the first battery, and a device to generate static electricity. And even though I can’t find it, I can only assume that ‘volts’ are attributed to him. If you know otherwise, let me know.
So ends ‘Zel’s Educational Corner.’
Zel-kun out.
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