600 BCThales of Miletos.

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Brief History of Electric Force

• 600 BC Thales of Miletos. Thales was the first
  known Greek philosopher, scientist and
  mathematician. He is credited with five theorems
  of elementary geometry.
• He could move feathers with a piece of amber, so
  long as he first rubbed it with cat fur.
• Greek word for amber is elektron
• 1600s Niccolo Cabeo found and proved that
  electric forces could also be attractive, as well
  as repulsive, and that a charged body could
  attract a non-electrified one.
• 1729 Stephen Gray found that this electric
  force could be sent over copper wires, which in
  turn proved that electricity wasnt an exclusive
  property of a material.
• 1733 Charles Francois du Fay discovered negative
  and positive charges, called them resinous(-)
  and vitreous()
• 1780s Coulomb and his torsion balance, proving
  the electric force is inverse square over a
  distance, and finding k coulombs constant.
• 1745 E.G. von Kleist Prof. von Musschenbroek,
  Leyden, discovered independently that a glass
  vessel filled with water and charged from a
  frictional source could store the charge. "Leyden
  Jar", the first electrical condenser.
• 1799 Alessandro Volta (1745-1827) is due to his
  invention, in late 1799, of the "Pile", the first
  battery in history.

Thales of Miletos
Figure shows that the electric force of a rubbed
glass could be sent, through a wire, to the body
of a person.
Leyden Jar If metal coatings inside outside a
glass jar are charged oppositely, they give a
spark when connected
Original drawings of Coulombs torsion balance
for measuring properties of the Electric force.
Original drawings of his Piles by Volta the
"chain of cups" apparatus (upper), the
"columnar apparatus" (middle lower). Zn and Ag
(silver)
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