BENJAMIN
FRANKLIN
When lightening
flashed, a tiny spark jumped from the key to his wrist. The experiment proved
Franklin's theory, but was extremely dangerous - he could easily have been
killed.
Michael
Faraday
In 1831, Faraday found the solution. Electricity
could be produced through magnetism by motion. He discovered that when a magnet
was moved inside a coil of copper wire, a tiny electric current flows through
the wire. Of course, by today's standards, Faraday's electric generator was
crude (and provided only a small electric current), but he had discovered the
first method of generating electricity by means of motion in a magnetic field.
The credit for generating electric current on
a practical scale goes to the famous English scientist, Michael Faraday.
Faraday was greatly interested in the invention of the electromagnet, but his
brilliant mind took earlier experiments still further. If electricity could
produce magnetism, why couldn't magnetism produce electricity?
OHM
George Simon Ohm, a German mathematician and physicist, was a college
teacher in Cologne when in 1827 he published, "The Galvanic Circuit
Investigated Mathematically". His theories were coldly received by German
scientists, but his research was recognized in Britain and he was awarded the
Copley Medal in 1841. His name has been given to the unit of electrical
resistance.