My name's Ethan and my question is -
When was electricity
first discovered?
Is it that ancient
or was it, like, something
discovered in recent years?
(THUNDER RUMBLES)
Samson, I need you to fetch me
some things from market.
Of course, sir.
Two apples, one red, one green-ish,
truffles, cornstarch, a live duck,
a dead duck, half a bucket of oats,
and a pack of AA batteries.
What are AA batteries, sir?
Well, they're used to power things.
What, sir?
You know, electricity!
Never heard of it, sir?
Good gravy!
How do you think this works?
Or this?
(RADIO STATIC)
Or this?
Magic?
Electricity.
Electricity!
Right, sir, and who invented that?
Oh, Samson, you sweet, naive fool!
You can't invent electricity,
but you can discover it.
Oh, who discovered it then?
Well...
To find out we have to go back
more than 2,000 years.
It was roughly 600 BC
when the Ancient Greeks discovered
that rubbing fur and amber together
causes something we know today
as static electricity.
You know,
that funny thing that happens
when you rub a balloon on your head.
It wasn't until many years later
that an English physicist,
William Gilbert,
used the Latin word 'electricus'
to describe this strange phenomenon
which was actually negative particles
called electrons building up
and jumping
from one place to another.
Fast forward to 1752 and...
Samson? Samson?
What is this? What are you doing?
Well, sir, I thought
there might be a connection
between lightning and electricity.
So, I got me kite
and a key to test it out.
Touche, Samson.
In 1752,
a man named Benjamin Franklin
conducted an experiment
using a kite, a key and a storm.
His theory was that lightning and
electric sparks were the same thing,
and he was right.
The key attracted electricity
from the storm clouds
which travelled down the kite string
and gave him an electric shock.
Which is a very dangerous experiment
and you should not try it at home.
Sorry, sir.
In 1800, Italian physicist
Alessandro Volta created
the first electrochemical battery,
the voltaic pile.
It used special chemicals
that break apart
and release electrons.
Volta's battery wasn't
very practical,
although it is where we get
the term 'voltage' from.
In 1832, English scientist
Michael Faraday
made a better battery.
And later, scientists
like Nikola Tesla and Thomas Edison
made some big electrical discoveries,
including the light bulb.
Finally, in 1881,
a town in Surrey in the UK
became the first in the world
to be lit with electrical light.
Of course, today there are
a whole bunch of different ways
we can generate electricity -
like this, this or this -
which allows us to do things
like this...
Hit it, Samson!
(DISCO MUSIC PLAYS)
