| Year |
Description |
|
| 1600 |
Gilbert laid the foundation for the sciences of magnetism and electricity. |
|
| 1643 |
Torricelli constructed the barometer and produced the Torricelli vacuum. |
|
| 1646 |
Guericke invented an air vacuum pump and an electrostatic machine with a sulfur sphere. |
|
| 1659 |
Boyle constructed an improved vacuum pump, the machina Boyleana. |
|
| 1675 |
Newton built a more efficient electrostatic generator with a rotating glass sphere. |
|
| 1705 |
Hauksbee observed glow discharges and many other new and curious phenomenon in vacuum. |
|
| 1729 |
Gray distinguished conductors of electricity from nonconductors. |
|
| 1733 |
Du Fay discovered two different types of electricity: viterous and resinous electricity. |
|
| 1745 |
Kleist constructed the Kleist jar, predecessor of the Leydon jar. |
|
| 1746 |
Cuneaus and van Musschenbroek constructed the Leyden jar. |
|
| 1747 |
Watson transmitted electricity over long conductors. |
|
| 1749 |
Abbe Nollet experimented with the electrical egg and made fundamental observations. |
|
| 1750 |
Franklin defined positive and negative electricity. |
|
| 1760 |
Canton built a pith electroscope to measure electric quantities. |
|
| 1785 |
Morgan possibly produced x-rays in vacuum experiments. |
|
| 1786 |
Galvani discovered animal electricity. |
|
| 1800 |
Volta constructed the first electric battery, the voltaic pile. |
|
| 1815 |
Prout suggested that hydrogen is the fundamental building stone of matter. |
|
| 1820 |
Oersted discovered the link between electricity and magnetism. |
|
| 1820 |
Ampere formulated mathematically the discovery of Oerested. |
|
| 1827 |
Ohm formulated Ohm's law, stating the relationship between electric current, electromotive force, and resistance. |
|
| 1831 |
Faraday and Henry discovered electromagnetic induction. |
|
| 1836 |
Faraday conducted the first systematic experiments on discharge of electricity through gases at pressures of 0.4 mm Hg. |
|
| 1836 |
Sturgeon and Page built the first induction coil (Neeff and Wagner improved it in 1853). |
|
| 1843 |
Abria of Bordeaux discovered striations in gas discharge. |
|
| 1845 |
Birth of Wilhelm Conrad Rontgen at Lennep, Germany. |
|
| 1850 |
Plucker observed green glass fluoroscence opposite the negative electrode in a vacuum tube. |
|
| 1851 |
Ruhmkorff of Paris made successful induction coils (demonstrated in London by Faraday in 1855). |
|
| 1852 |
W.R. Grove rediscovered striations with an improved piston pump. |
|
| 1858 |
Kohlrausch and Lord Kelvin improved electrometers. |
|
| 1859 |
J. Gassiot undoubtedly produced cathode rays and magnetic deflection and must have produced x-rays. |
|
