How did people first discover electricity?

Answer 1

Many believe Benjamin Franklin to be the father of electricity, but current findings seem to show otherwise. In 1752, Franklin is said to have performed the famous experiment of flying a kite during a thunderstorm, which led to the discovery that lightning and electricity were somehow related. Modern scientists know this to be something of a tall tale, since being hit by lightning would have been fatal. It's likely that Franklin was actually insulated, away from the path of lightning.

The history of electricity actually goes back more than two thousand years, to the time the Ancient Greeks discovered that rubbing fur on amber caused an attraction between the two. In the year 1600, English physician William Gilbert conned the term electric, from the Greek elektron, to identify the force that certain substances exert when rubbed against each other.

Answer 2

People first discovered electricity through ancient experiments with amber, a fossilized tree resin that becomes charged when rubbed. The Greek philosopher Thales of Miletus documented this phenomenon around 600 BC. Over time, further experimentation and discoveries by scientists like Benjamin Franklin and Alessandro Volta led to a better understanding of electricity.