I'm Charlene Wendt and I'm 10 years old.
I'd like to know, how did scientists
first find out about electricity?
My name's Eric Ronning.
I'm the founder of Re, which is a group
of inventors which use
art, science, and business to bring to
market inventions and technology.
Electricity is a complex topic that
drives the world as we know it today.
From Edison's iconic lightbulb, to the
satellites that enable our smart phones.
But fundamentally, electricity is just
the presence and flow of
electric charge.
Over 2,000 years ago, the Greek 
philosopher Thales of Miletus
noted that rubbing amber, which is 
fossilized tree resin,
with fur, creates a magnetic field.
And even 4,000 years ago ancient 
Egyptians used
electric fish to cure gout, headaches, and
they even called them
the thunder of the Nile.
But I wouldn't really consider these
scientific discoveries,
rather, just merely observations.
The reason is, to satisfy the scientific
method,
an observer would need an experiment
set up,
a hypothesis, and a thorough analysis
afterwards.
The importance of this is that others
can build on that knowledge later on.
Which is why it's worth noting that in
the year 1600
William Gilbert was the first person to
coin the term electricity,
or really, electricus from the Latin word.
He had conducted an experiment the same
as Thales of Miletus.
He rubbed amber with fur and noticed
the static electric charge on it.
But unlike Thales, Gilbert actually
noted his observations and did a
thorough account in his
publication, De Magnet.
And the subsequent discoveries afterwards
are what really matter.
You have in 1831 Michael Faraday who
developed the first electric dynamo
for power generation.
It allowed people to generate electricity,
more specifically current,
in an ongoing and practical way.
Which in turn allowed for the invention
of Thomas Edison's 1878 lightbulb.
As you can probably tell, all of these
discoveries are interlinked
and the reason why is because each
individual's scientific contribution
was not just an observation but rather a
thorough account of
their theories, their ideas.
And it allowed a series of discoveries
to occur.
So really when you talk about the
discovery of electricity,
it's the community that created
that discovery.
