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)