The Timeline of Electricity By Tom Henry

The Timeline of Electricity 

Men had known something about electricity for many centuries. Why did they not find some useful purpose for it sooner?   
        Because, until little more than a century ago, electricity was a stranger. No one was really acquainted with it. There was little knowledge of those rules or laws which electricity obeys.
        This knowledge came from experiments. An experiment is an exploring trip, an adventure in the land of science. Thousands of men made countless experiments - went exploring in unknown electrical territory looking for new knowledge. They brought back with them telegraph instruments, telephones, x-ray tubes, electric eyes, and a host of other wonders.
        Some of these scientific adventurers won fame, some fortunes; others only the pleasure of discovery. Many obscure men, whose names we have never heard, discovered and are still finding scientific nuggets by experimenting in electricity's goldfields. Others, and from a long list we might mention Volta, Franklin, Faraday, Ampere, Morse, Bell, Edison, Kelvin, and Tesla, were electrical adventurers whose experiments made them world famous.

What is electricity?
        A most amazing fact is that not one of these men, not even Faraday or Edison, ever saw or felt or heard the wonderful force which helped them master. Not one of them ever knew what it was.
        Neither can we hope to see or feel or hear electricity itself. It is invisible. It is somewhat like the wind. It is a force - a form of energy. We can only see the effects of the wind - those things the wind does. We can hear leaves rustle, feel pressure against our faces, see trees sway, smoke swirl and waves and ripples sweep over the water, yet we will be only hearing, feeling and seeing the effects of the wind and not hearing, feeling, or seeing the wind itself.
        The journey won't end with this book, as we are constantly discovering new inventions that will someday even take us to the stars.