Electricity powers our transport, heating, lighting, communications, computation and a host of essential services that we take for granted. However, electricity has much more important aspects, because it is a fundamental feature of all matter. Electrical phenomena has been studied since antiquity, though advances in the science were not made until the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Practical applications for electricity however remained few, and it would not be until the late nineteenth century that engineers were able to put it to industrial and residential use. From Charles Francois du Fay discovering in 1733 that electricity comes in two forms, which he called 'negative' and 'positive', to Ben Franklins Lightning rod, which has been the first recorded practical application of electricity - there has been a fascinating history in getting to the type of electricity we rely upon today. Michael Faraday: Michael Faraday was a British scientist, chemist, physicist and philosopher who greatly contributed to the fields of electromagnetism and electrochemistry. His main discoveries included the magnetic field, electromagnetic induction, diamagnetism and electrolysis. Although Faraday received little formal education and knew little of higher mathematics, he was one of the most influential scientists in history. Historians of science refer to him as having been the best experimentalist in the history of science. William Sturgeon William Sturgeon was an English physicist and inventor who made the first electromagnets, and invented the first practical English electric motor. It was his invention of the electromagnet that encouraged researchers to experiment with it. Resulting in attempts to send signals by electricity. However, it was Joseph Henry who discovered the essential mechanics behind the electric telegraph.
