Optics, Preachers, Electricity, Chemists, and Gases

PRIESTLEY, JOSEPH ( Birstal Fieldhead, Yorkshire, England, 13 March 1733; Northumberland, Pennsylvania, 6 February 1804) Educated for the dissenting ministry and employed most of his adult life as a teacher [...]

Scientists, Conservation laws (Physics), Lightning rods, Electric conductors, Inventors, Grounding (Electricity), Electricity, and Clouds (Meteorology)

Franklin, Benjamin ( . Boston, Massachusetts, 17 January 1706; . Philadephia, Pennsylvania, 17 April 1790) . Benjamin Franklin was the first American to win an international reputation in pure science [...]

Scientists, Faraday effect, Physicists, Benzene, Chemists, Electrochemistry, Electromagnetism, Substitution reactions, Electricity, and Field theories (Physics)

Faraday, Michael ( . Newington, Surrey [now part of Southwark, London], England, 22 September 1791; . Hampton Court, Middlesex, England, 25 August 1867) . Michael Faraday was born into a [...]

Physicists, Magnetism, Electricity, and Chemists

Dufay (Du Fay), Charles-François Decisternai ( . Paris, France, 14 September 1698; . Paris, 16 July 1739) . Dufay came from a family that had followed military careers for over [...]

Physics, Physicists, Electrical resistance, Electricity, and Heat

WILCKE, JOHAN CARL ( . Wismar, Germany, 6 September 1732; . Stockholm, Sweden, 18 April (1796) Like many of the Swedish savants of the eighteenth century, including Samuel Klingenstierna and [...]

Electrical conductivity, Physics, Medicine, Botanists, Pharmacists, Botany, Electricity, and Physicians

WATSON WILLIAM ( . London, England, 3 April 1715; . London, 10 May 1787), Watson, the son of a cornchandler, obtained a sound basic education at the Merchant Taylors’s school [...]

Physicists, College faculty, Electricity, and Inventors

VOLTA, ALESSANDRO GIUSEPPE ANTONIO ANASTASIO ( Como. duchy of Milan, Italy, 18 February 1745; . Como, 5 March 1827), Volta came from a Lombard family ennobled by the municipality of [...]

Faraday's law of induction, Physicists, Coulomb's law, Absolute zero, Electrostatic interactions, Poisson's equation, and Electricity

THOMSON, SIR WILLIAM (BARON KELVIN OF LARGS) ( . Belfast, Ireland, 26 June 1824; . Netherhall, near Largs, Ayrshire, Scotland, 17 December 1907) . Thomson was the son of James [...]

Electrons, Physicists, Nobel laureates, Scattering (Physics), X-rays, Cathode rays, Electricity, and Mathematical physics

THOMSON, JOSEPH JOHN ( . Cheetham Hill, near Manchester. England, 18 December 1856; . Cambridge, England, 30 August 1940) . Thomson came to physics for want of money to enter [...]

Refraction, Physicists, Infrared radiation, Educators, Electromagnetic radiation, and Electricity

RUBENS, HEINRICH (HENRI LEOPOLD) ( . Wiesbaden, Germany, 30 March 1865; . Berlin, Germany, 17 July 1922) . Rubens was the son of Barend Eliazer Rubens, a jeweler who had [...]

Research scientists, Electric conductors, Mathematics textbooks, Science literature, Teachers, German writers, Physicists, Mathematicians, Science writers, Ohm's law, Electricity, and Electric current

OHM, GEORG SIMON ( . Erlangen, Bavaria, 16 March 1789; . Munich, Bavaria, 6 July 1854) . Ohm was the oldest son of Johann Wolfgang Ohm, master locksmith, and Maria [...]

Scientists, Lightning, Physicists, Electricity, and Science history

NOLLET, JEAN-ANTOINE ( Pimprez, near Noyon, France, 19 November 1700; . paris, France, 24 April 1770) . Nollet’s rise from the semiliterate peasantry to the top of the aristocratic Paris [...]

Juvenilia (Literature), Saturn (Planet), Physicists, Color vision, Physics research, and Electricity

MAXWELL, JAMES CLERK ( . Edinburgh, Scotland, 13 June 1831; . Cambridge, England, 5 November 1879) Maxwell was a descendant of the Clerks of Penicuik, a family prominent in Edinburgh [...]

Electrical conductivity, Blackbody radiation, Physicists, Spectroscopy, Electricity, and Emission spectra

Kirchhoff, Gustav Robert ( . Königsberg, Germany, 12 March 1824; . Berlin, Germany, 17 October 1887) Kirchhoff’s major contribution to physics was his experimental discovery and theoretical analysis in 1859 [...]

Cosmology, Magnetite, Experimental physicists, Physicians, Electricity, and Magnetism

Gilbert, William ( Colchester, Essex, England, 1544; . London, England, 30 November 1603) . Gilbert was born into a rising, middle-class family that had only recently acquired its well-to-do status. [...]

Freemasons, Electricity, and Natural philosophers

Desaguliers, John Theophilus ( . La Rochelle, France, 12 March 1683; . London, England, 10 March 1744) . Desaguliers was taken to Guernsey when he was less than three years [...]

Physics, Physicists, Stresses (Materials), Engineering mechanics, Engineers, Electricity, and Elasticity (Mechanics)

Coulomb, Charles Augustin ( . Angouleme, France, 14 June 1736; . Paris, France, 23 August 1806) . One of the major figures in the history of physics and engineering, Coulomb’s [...]

Electricity, Natural philosophers, and Mathematical physics

Cavendish, Henry ( . Nice, France, 10 October 1731; . London, England, 24 February 1810), . In an age when leading British scientists were largely middle-class, Henry Cavendish stood out [...]

Telecommunications, Light bulbs, Inventors, United States history, 1865-1901, Technology and society, Industrial Revolution, ca. 1750-1900, Industrialization, Electricity, Entrepreneurs, Phonographs, and Electric power

Thomas Edison Thomas Edison was a legendary figure in his lifetime, and even decades after his death in 1931 he is considered one of history's most significant inventors. Edison's enduring [...]

Electricity, Electric utilities, and Utility regulations

ELECTRICITY Electricity has been known since ancient times, but scientists could not make use of it safely until the eighteenth century. Thomas Edison's invention of the electric lightbulb in 1879 [...]