600BC: Static electricity

Thales, a Greek, found that when amber was rubbed with silk it attracted feathers
and other light objects. He had discovered static electricity. The Greek word for
amber is electron', from which we get electricity' and electronics'.
1600: William Gilbert invented the term electricity
William Gilbert, scientist and physician to Queen Elizabeth I, invented the term
electricity (from the Greek word for amber, elecktra). He was the first person to
describe the earth's magnetic field and to realise that there is a relationship
between magnetism and electricity.
1705: Francis Hauksbee invented Neon Light
Francis Hauksbee created electrical effects by putting some mercury into a glass
globe, pumping out the air and then spinning it. When he did this in the dark, and
then rubbed the globe with his bare hand, it glowed. (He didn't realise it, but he had
invented the neon light!)
1752: Franklin proved that lightning is a form of electricity
Benjamin Franklin, famous U.S. politician, flew a kite with a metal tip into a
thunderstorm to prove that lightning is a form of electricity. He was very lucky he
wasn't killed. Don't try this at home!
1700s: The Wimshurst machine was invented
The Wimshurst machine was invented. It is used to produce static electricity easily
and reliably. Two parallel plates are rotated in opposite directions, which produces a
charge around the edges of the plates. The charge is collected by a system of
combs.Voltages as high as 50,000 volts can be produced, depending on humidity
and other conditions, as well as sparks up to four inches long.
1780: Luigi Galvani's dead frog's legs
An Italian called Luigi Galvani discovered that when he touched a dead frog's leg
with a knife, it twitched violently. Alessandro Volta later showed that this was
because electricity is created when moisture (from the frog) comes between two
different types of metal (the steel knife and a tin plate).
1800: Volta's Pile
Volta created the first simple battery. He used pure silver and zinc discs, sandwiched
between muslin damped in a salt solution, developed from Galvani's earlier
experiments with a frog's leg.
1800: Sir Humphry Davy discovered Electrolysis
Sir Humphry Davy discovered that when he passed an electric current through some
substances they decomposed. This process later became known as electrolysis.
Davy's experiments with electrolysis led to the discovery of a number of elements,
including magnesium, calcium, strontium and barium.
1820: Hans Christian Oersted discovered magnetic fields caused by electricity
Hans Christian Oersted of Denmark found that when electricity flows through a wire,
it produces a magnetic field that affects the needle of a nearby compass.
1821: Michael Faraday's discovery that led to the invention of electric motors
Michael Faraday discovered that when a magnet is moved inside a coil of copper
wire, a tiny electric current flows through the wire. This discovery later led to the
invention of electric motors.
1821: Thomas Johann Seebeck discovered Thermo-electricity
Thomas Johann Seebeck found that when the junction of certain metals is heated,
electricity flows thermo-electricity.
1826: Andr Ampre explained the electro-dynamic theory

Andr Ampre published his theories about electricity and magnetism. He was the
first person to explain the electro-dynamic theory. The unit of electric current was
named after Ampre.
1827: Georg Ohm published his complete mathematical theory of electricity
German college teacher Georg Ohm published his complete mathematical theory of
electricity. The unit of electrical resistance was later named after him.
1829: Joseph Henry's discovery into electromagnetism
Joseph Henry showed that a wire wrapped in coils produces a greater
electromagnetism than a straight one.
1830: Joseph Henry discovered the principles of the dynamo
Joseph Henry discovered the principles of the dynamo.
1831: Michael Faraday demonstrated electromagnetic induction
Michael Faraday demonstrated electromagnetic induction by passing a magnet
through a coil of wire.
1831: The First Telegraph Machine
Charles Wheatstone and William Fothergill Cooke created the first telegraph
machine.
1834: Charles Wheatstone measured the velocity of electricity
Charles Wheatstone used a revolving mirror and four miles of wire to measure the
velocity of electricity.
1838: Samuel Morse invented Morse Code
At an exhibition in New York, Samuel Morse demonstrated sending 10 words a
minute by his new telegraph machine. He used a system of dots and dashes, which
later became standard throughout the world, known as Morse code.
1870s: Thomas Edison built a DC electric generator
Thomas Edison built a DC (direct current) electric generator in America. He later
provided all of New York's electricity.
1876: Alexander Graham Bell invented of the telephone
Alexander Graham Bell, inventor of the telephone, used electricity to transmit
speech for the first time.
1878: Joseph Swan demonstrated the first Electric Light
Joseph Swan, a British scientist, demonstrated the first electric light with a carbon
filament lamp. A few months later, Thomas Edison made the same discovery in
America.
1880s: Nikola Tesla developed an AC motor
Nikola Tesla developed an AC (alternating current) motor and a system of AC power
generation. Edison saw Tesla's system as a threat to his DC supply and spread
stories that it wasn't not safe. But, after Tesla's system was used to power 100,000
electric lights at Chicago's World Fair in 1893, AC became the established power
supply in the USA.
1880s: Nikola Tesla invented the Telsa Coil
Nikola Tesla used the Tesla coil' to step up ordinary household current to produce
extremely high frequency current. Tesla used this high frequency current to develop
some of the first neon and fluorescent lights.
1881: The first public electricity supply
The first public electricity supply was generated in Godalming, Surrey using a
waterwheel at a nearby mill.
1883: Magnus Volks built the first electric railway

The first electric railway opened on Brighton seafront, built by electrical engineer
Magnus Volks. The Volks Railway, built just for pleasure rides, is one mile long and
still runs during the summer season.
1884: Charles Parsons built his first turbine
Charles Parsons built his first turbine. This is a type of engine which is operated by
jets of high pressure gases. This type of engine was later developed to drive the
propellers of boats, including the Titanic.
1886: Heinrich Hertz produced and detected electric waves
Heinrich Hertz produced and detected electric waves in the atmosphere.
1890: Turbine driven generators
Turbine driven generators were introduced to produce electricity.
1892: Hendrik Lorentz published his electron theory.
Dutch physicist Hendrik Lorentz published his electron theory.
1895: The first electric hand drill
The first electric hand drill became available, invented by Wilhelm Fein.
1895: Discovery of X-rays
The German phsyicist Wilhelm Roentgen discovered invisible rays that made a
distant screen glow and passed through objects. These were X-rays.
1896: Nikola Tesla's hydroelectric power generators
Nikola Tesla's hydroelectric power generators at Niagara Falls came into operation.
Within a few years, Tesla's generators at Niagara Falls were supplying electricity to
New York City for the elevated railways, the subways and even the lights on
Broadway.
1897: Marconi sends radio message
Guglielmo Marconi sends a radio message from The Isle of Wight to Poole (20 miles
away). Later he sends a message across the Atlantic.
1905: Albert Einstein and photovoltaic cells
Albert Einstein demonstrated that light energy could be used to produce electricity
the idea behind photovoltaic cells was born.
600 B.C.
Thales of Miletus discovered static electricity by rubbing fur on
substances such as amber
1600 English scientist William Gilbert coined the word electricus after careful
experiments.
1705 English scientist Francis Hauksbee made a glass ball that glowed when spun
and rubbed with the hand
1720 English scientist Stephen Gray discovered insulators and conductors
1745 German physicist Ewald Georg von Kleist and Dutch scientist Pieter van
Musschenbroek invented Leyden jars
1752 American scientist Benjamin Franklin showed that lightning was electrical by
flying a kite, and explained how Leyden jars work
1780 Italian scientist Luigi Galvani discovered the Galvanic action in living tissue
1783 French physicist Charles-Augustin de Coulomb formulated Coulomb's law
1785 French mathematician Pierre-Simon Laplace developed the Laplace transform
to transform a linear differential equation to an algebraic equation. Later, his
transform became a tool in circuit analysis.
1800 Italian physicist Alessandro Volta invented the battery
1820 Danish physicist Hans Christian rsted accidentally discovered that an
electric field creates a magnetic field
1820 One week after rsted's discovery, French physicist Andr-Marie Ampre
published his law. He also proposed right-hand screw rule

1821 German scientist Thomas Johann Seebeck discovered thermoelectricity

1825 English physicist William Sturgeon developed the first electromagnet
1827 German physicist Georg Ohm introduced the concept of electrical resistance
1831 English physicist Michael Faraday published the law of induction (Joseph
Henry developed the same law independently)
1831 American scientist Joseph Henry in United States developed a prototype DC
motor
1832 French instrument maker Hippolyte Pixii in France developed a prototype DC
generator
1833 Michael Faraday developed laws of electrolysis
1833 Michael Faraday invented thermistor
1833 English Samuel Hunter Christie invented Wheatstone bridge (It is named after
Charles Wheatstone who popularized it)
1836 Irish priest (and later scientist) Nicholas Callan invented transformer in
Ireland
1837 English scientist Edward Davy invented the electric relay
1839 French scientist Edmond Becquerel discovered the Photovoltaic Effect
1844 American inventor Samuel Morse developed telegraphy and the Morse code
1845 German physicist Gustav Kirchhoff developed two laws now known as
Kirchoff's Circuit laws
1850 Belgian engineer Floris Nollet invented (and patented) a practical AC
generator
1855 First utilization of AC (in electrotherapy) by French neurologist Guillaume
Duchenne
1856 Belgian engineer Charles Bourseul proposed telephony
1856 First electrically powered light house in England
1860 German scientist Johann Philipp Reis invented Microphone
1862 Scottish physicist James Clerk Maxwell published four equations bearing his
name
1866 Transatlantic telegraph cable
1873 Belgian engineer Zenobe Gramme who developed DC generator accidentally
discovered that a DC generator also works as a DC motor during an exhibit in
Vienna.
1876 Russian engineer Pavel Yablochkov invented electric carbon arc lamp
1876 Scottish inventor Alexander Graham Bell invented telephone
1877 First street lighting in Paris, France
1877 American inventor Thomas Alva Edison invented phonograph
1877 German industrialist Werner von Siemens developed primitive loud speaker
1878 First hydroelectric plant in Cragside, England
1878 English engineer Joseph Swan invented Incandescent light bulb
1879 American physicist Edwin Herbert Hall discovered Hall Effect
1879 Thomas Alva Edison introduced a long lasting filament for the incandescent
lamp.
1880 French physicists Pierre Curie and Jacques Curie discovered Piezoelectricity
1882 First thermal power stations in London and New York
1883 English physicist J J Thomson invented waveguides
1887 German American inventor Emile Berliner invented gramophone record
1888 German physicist Heinrich Hertz proved the that electro magnetic waves
travel over some distance. (First indication of radio communication)

1888 Italian physicist and electrical engineer Galileo Ferraris publishes a paper on
the induction motor and Serbian-American engineer Nikola Tesla gets a US patent
on the same device[3][4]
1890 Thomas Alva Edison invented fuse
1893 During the Fourth International Conference of Electricians in Chicago
electrical units were defined
1894 Russian physicist Alexander Stepanovich Popov developed a prototype of a
radio receiver
1896 First successful intercontinental telegram
1897 German inventor Karl Ferdinand Braun invented cathode ray oscilloscope
(CRO)
1900 Italian inventor Guglielmo Marconi succeeded in first radio broadcast
1901 First transatlantic radio broadcast by Guglielmo Marconi
1901 American engineer Peter Cooper Hewitt invented Fluorescent lamp
1904 English engineer John Ambrose Fleming invented diode
1906 American inventor Lee de Forest invented triode
1908 Scottish engineer Alan Archibald Campbell-Swinton, laid the principles of
Television.
1911 Dutch physicist Heike Kamerlingh Onnes discovered Superconductivity
1912 American engineer Edwin Howard Armstrong developed Electronic oscillator
1915 French phyisicist Paul Langevin and Russian engineer Constantin Chilowsky
invented sonar
1917 American engineer Alexander M. Nicholson invented crystal oscillator
1918 French physicist Henri Abraham and Eugene Bloch invented multivibrator
1919 Edwin Howard Armstrong developed standard AM radio receiver
1921 Metre Convention was extended to include the electrical units
1925 Austrian American engineer Julius Edgar Lilienfeld patented the first FET
(which became popular much later)
1926 Yagi-Uda antenna was developed by the Japanese engineers Hidetsugu Yagi
and Shintaro Uda
1927 American engineer Harold Stephen Black invented negative feedback
amplifier
1927 German Physicist Max Dieckmann invented Video camera tube
1928 First experimental Television broadcast in the US.
1929 First public TV broadcast in Germany
1931 First wind energy plant in the Soviet Union
1936 Dudley E. Foster and Stuart William Seeley developed FM detector circuit.
1936 Austrian engineer Paul Eisler invented Printed circuit board
1936 Scottish Scientist Robert Watson-Watt devevoped the Radar concept which
was proposed earlier.
1938 Russian American engineer Vladimir K. Zworykin developed Iconoscope
1939 Edwin Howard Armstrong developed FM radio receiver
1939 Russell and Sigurd Varian developed the first Klystron tube in the US.
1941 German engineer Konrad Zuse developed the first programmable computer in
Berlin
1944 Scottish Engineer John Logie Baird developed the first color picture tube
1945 Transatlantic telephone cable
1947 American engineers John Bardeen and Walter Houser Brattain together with
their group leader William Shockley invented transistor.
1948 Hungarian-British physicist Dennis Gabor invented Holography

1950
1951
1953
1958
1960
1962

French physicist Alfred Kastler invented MASER

First nuclear power plant in the US
First fully transistorized computer in the US
American engineer Jack Kilby invented the integrated circuit (IC)
American engineer Theodore Harold Maiman invented the LASER
Nick Holonyak Jr. invented the LED