As visions of thundering jets recede in the rear view mirror, we turn our gaze upon my semi official history of electricity.
Today, it seems easy to harness and control, and relatively easy to carry around with you. Unless you develop a habit of making toast in the shower or licking the battery electrodes in your car, chances are you passively enjoy the finer things electricity can do for you.
Now, many, many years ago, we're talking 2500 BC or more, electricity began to be noted by humans. Early interactions with it were notable, and very scary. It can be surmised that humans had had confrontations way before then, but they hadn't invented the words for "holy shit" yet.
Not surprisingly, the earliest recorded mentions were of people getting zapped by electric eels, rays and catfish. (Few were available or felt compelled to write about their lightning strikes).
Scientists of the day, like the early Roman physician, Scribonius Largus, knew of the shocks and that they were conducted through water. Even then, they were getting patients to touch electric fish in a misguided attempt to cure, of all things, gout. What is it with doctors anyway? I guess getting a zap from a ray DOES make you focus less on your sore toe. To put things in perspective, these animals can poop out over 200 volts.
Until static electricity was discovered, there was no real way to go out and get some to play with to see how it worked. Lightening had not yet been tied to it, and anyways it was horribly unreliable as a source.
Next post, science gets serious!
No comments:
Post a Comment