Sloan: Thank electricity for easier lives

No one invented electricity. According to Universe.com, for more than 2,000 years it was discovered and harnessed in incremental steps.

Benjamin Franklin’s 1752 key-on-a-kite experiment only established the connection between lightning and electricity.

Wendel Sloan

Around 600 BC, the Greeks discovered rubbing fur on amber (fossilized tree resin) caused static electricity.

In the 1930s, archaeologists discovered ancient Roman pots with sheets of copper inside that may have been ancient batteries to produce light.

By the 17th century, an electrostatic generator was invented, as well as differentiating between positive and negative currents, and conductors and insulators.

In 1800, Italian physicist Alessandro Volta constructed an electric battery producing steady current.

In 1831, Michael Faraday created a crude generator producing ongoing current.

This led to American inventor Thomas Edison and British scientist Joseph Swan independently inventing incandescent filament light bulbs around 1878.

Later, Nikola Tesla obtained a patent for advanced alternating current, and competing patents with Marconi for radio.

American George Westinghouse’s work on Tesla’s and others’ discoveries brought widespread commercial use of alternating current.

Others instrumental in advancing electricity include Scottish inventor James Watt, French mathematician Andre Ampere, and German mathematician and physicist George Ohm.

The point is we take electricity for granted, but if it had not been discovered and harnessed, you would not be reading these words.

In fact, who knows if you would exist. Perhaps your parents met at an electricity-powered movie, concert or amusement park.

Without it, we would not have radio, television, phones, computers, small and large appliances, Friday night football, agriculture that can feed the world, and modern schools, transportation and medical services.

I daresay, without these giants before us discovering and harnessing electricity, most of our career aspirations would not even be concepts.

The ease and choices that electricity affords us probably also contribute to the stress of striving for unrealistic success possible only for the lucky few.

Otherwise, we would be focused on survival, where attributes helping us obtain daily necessities would be most valued.

Contact Wendel Sloan at [email protected]