Electricity

Book excerpt: Over time, Benjamin Franklin’s kite and key experiment has taken on mythic proportions. Franklin’s experiment established the relationship between lightning and electricity, but it would take the research of Alessandro Volta to discover how humans can generate electrical currents without relying on weather systems. Electricity establishes the history of a scientific discovery that fundamentally changed the way people live their lives. Tracing the line of inquiry from the ancient Greeks’ understanding of static electricity, to Edison’s light bulb, to Tesla’s work in bringing electricity to the masses, the book provides biographies of key figures, explanations of the science behind electricity, and an examination of how electricity is used in contemporary research and innovations.