History of electricity and evolution in simple words

The concept of the history of electricity is very old. First: we get it from natural resources. Second: we get it from coal, natural gas, oil, nuclear power, wind, solar, and others.



You must read about How does hydroelectricity works.


In the past, we built many cities and towns alongside waterfalls (the primary source of mechanical energy) that turned water wheels for power. Before electricity production started 100 years ago, we illuminate houses with kerosene lamps, and we cooled the food in iceboxes. We heated the rooms with wood or charcoal stoves.

History of electricity from past to present

Below, I summarize the historical development of electricity.

In B.C. 600

Thales of Miletus found the electrification with the friction of amber - telling what we now call static electricity.

In 1600

British scientist William Gilbert first used the term electricity. Gilbert wrote about electrification in many of his books. He was the first who used also used the term electric force, magnetic pole and electrical attraction.

In 1660

Otto von Guericke is a big name in the history of electricity invented the machine that produces static electricity.

In 1675

Robert Boyle discovered and observed that we can transmit electrical force through a vacuum and that is its traction and repulsion property.

In 1745

Georg Von Kleist discovered that we can control and store electricity. Dutch physicist Pieter van Musschenbroek invented the first electric capacitor, den Leyden Jar... Leyden Jar used to store static electricity.

In 1747

Benjamin Franklin is a significant name in the history of electricity was experimenting with static charges in the air and theorized the existence of an electric fluid that could comprise particles.


William Watson discharged Leyden Jar through a circuit that enabled the understanding of current and circuitry. Henry Cavendish measured the electrical conductivity of different materials.

In 1752

Benjamin Franklin invented the lightning rod, he showed that lightning was an electric current.

In 1767

Joseph Priestley discovered that electricity follows Newton's inverse square law of gravity.

In 1786

Italian physicist Luigi Galvani clarified that the nerve impulses had an electrical basis when they twitched the frog muscles with a spark from an electrostatic machine.

In 1800

Alessandro Volta invented the first electric battery. Volta also proved that electricity can pass through wires.

We will always remember his inventions in the history of electricity.

In 1816

The first US energy company was established.

In 1820

Hans Christian Oersted and Marie Ampere, who observed that electric currents affect the needle in a compass confirmed the relationship between electricity and magnetism. similarly, Marie Ampere discovered that a cable wire behaves like a magnet when a current passes.

François Arago invented the electromagnet.

In 1821

Michael Faraday invented the first electric motor. He invented an electric motor and made his name in the history of electricity.

In 1826

He wrote about the electrical resistance in his article Georg Transmission law concerning potential, current, and circuit resistance yazıl written by Georg Simon Ohm.

In 1827

Joseph Henry's electromagnetic experiments revealed the concept of electrical inductance. Joseph Henry also built one of the first electric motors.

1831

Michael Faraday discovered the principles of induction, formation, and conduction of electromagnetism.

In 1837

Scientists produced the first industrial electric motor.

In 1839

The Welsh judge and physicist Sir William Robert Grove invented the first fuel cell.

In 1841

J. P. Joule's published the electric heating law.

In 1873

James Clerk Maxwell wrote equations describing the electromagnetic field and predicted electromagnetic waves moving at the speed of light.

In 1878

Edison Electric Light Co. (USA) and American Electric and Illuminating (Canada).

In 1879

Scientists open the first commercial power plant in San Francisco, used for the Charles Brush generator and an arc lamp. Electrical engineers launched the first commercial arc lighting system in Cleveland, Ohio.


Thomas Edison introduced the incandescent lamp in Menlo Park in New Jersey.

In 1880

Edison built the first electrical system in 1880.

In Grand Rapids, Michigan: Charles Brush uses a dynamo driven by a water turbine to provide theater and shop lighting.

In 1881

Niagara Falls, New York; The Charles Brush dynamo connected to the turbine at Quigley's flour factory illuminated the city street lamps.

In 1882

Edison Company opens the Pearl Street power plant. The first hydroelectric power plant opened in Wisconsin.

In 1883

Thomas Edison invented an electric transformer. He introduced the three-wire etim transmission system.

In 1884

Charles Parsons invented the steam turbine in 1884.

In 1886

William Stanley developed transformers and AC systems.

In 1887

The scientists opened "High Grove Station", the first hydroelectric power plant in the West, In San Bernardino, California.

In 1888

Nikola Tesla invented the AC alternator.

In 1889

In Oregon City, Willamette Falls station became the first AC hydropower plant.

Single-phase power was delivered to Portland at 4,000 volts, 13 kilometers away, and 50 volts to the distribution.

In 1891

60-speed AC system launched in the US.

In 1892

Thomson-Houston and Edison General Ele founded the General Electric Company in 1802.

In 1893

Westinghouse exhibited the universal electricity generation and distribution system at the Chicago fair.

Completed the first dam customized for hydroelectric power built along the Colorado River in Austin, Texas.

In 1897

J. J. Thomson discovered the electron.

In 1900

The highest voltage transmission line was 60 kilovolts.

In 1902

Fisk St. 5 Megawatt turbines were installed for Station (Chicago).

In 1903

The first successful gas turbine installed in France. The world's first all turbine station installed in Chicago.

The vacuum cleaner and the electric washing machine were invented.

In 1904

Jon Ambrose Fleming invents a vacuum tube and gives it the name "Diode Rectifier vacuum tube".

In 1905

Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, opened the first low-fuel hydropower plant with direct-attached vertical magnet turbines and generators.

In 1906

Scientists built a full submersible hydroelectric power plant inside the Ambursen Dam in Ilchester, Maryland.

In 1907

Lee De Forest invented the electric amplifier.

In 1909

The first pumped electrical storage facility opens in Switzerland.

In 1910

Ernest R. Rutherford measured the electric charge distribution in the atom.

In 1911

Willis Haviland Carrier explained the basic Rational Psychrometric Formulas to the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. The formula is now the basis of the basic calculations for the air conditioning industry.

R. D. Johnson produced the differential high-voltage tank and Johnson produced the hydrostatic penstock valve.

In 1913

The electric refrigerator was invented. Robert Millikan measured the electric charge in a single electron.

In 1917

The invented hydrazone draft tube, patented by W. M. White, was invented.

In 1920

The first US power plant to burn only powdered coal was opened.

In 1922

Connecticut Valley Energy Exchange (CONVEX) launched the leading interconnection between organizations.

In 1935

The first night of the big leagues is played with electric lighting.

In 1936

The highest steam temperature increased from 900 Fahrenheit to 600 Fahrenheit in the early 1920s. Boulder (Hoover) Dam, 266 miles away, 287 kilovolts power line was carried.

In 1947

The transistor was invented.

In 1953

First nuclear power plant works started.

In 1954

The Atomic Energy Act of 1954 permits private ownership of nuclear reactors.

In 1980

The first US wind farm opened.

In 1986

The Chernobyl nuclear accident (USSR) occurred.