History And Development Of Electricity

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History and Development of Electricity
For hundreds of years, electricity has been a challenge to many scientists. They have known about its existence but found it difficult to explain what electricity actually is.
Exactly what electricity is, is unknown. It has no weight but can lift and move thousands of tons. It has no shape, still, it is everywhere. It produces light even though we can’t see it. We do know, however, what electricity does and how to harness it. Electricity is a form of energy.
Electricity is a phenomenon that is a result of the existence of electrical charge (“What is Electricity?” pg.1).
Electricity is one of the most important forms of energy. Electricity produces light and heat, and it provides power for household appliances and industrial machinery. Electric power also enables us to have telephones, computers, motion pictures, television and radio (World Book).
To learn more about electricity, we must know more about the atom. Everything we know is made up of atoms. These atoms are so small that it takes millions of them to form a speck of dust. Elements of an atom are positive protons, negative electrons, and neutral neurons.
The negative charge of the electron is equal to the magnitude of the positive charge of the proton. These elements are arranged the same generally in all atoms. The protons and the neutrons always form a closely packed group called the nucleus, which has a positive charge due to protons.
Outside the nucleus and a relatively large distance away from it, are the electrons whose number is equal to the number of protons in the nucleus. If the atom is undisturbed no electrons are removed from the space around the nucleus, the atom remains electrically neutral.
Most of the electricity that we use daily consists of a flow of electrons. Everything around, including our bodies, contains electrons. Therefore, everything can be thought of as partly electrical....