How long has there been electricity? The short history of electrification

Few people have known since when there was electricity, although we use this energy every day and would hardly be able to do without it. We have summarized the history of electricity for you in a nutshell.

Electricity is not an invention - electricity as a natural phenomenon

Electricity has always existed, it is a natural phenomenon. It was discovered early on and is closely related to another natural phenomenon, magnetism.

• As early as 1672, the German physicist Otto von Guericke built an electrifying machine: he clamped a sulfur ball and rubbed his hands on it. The result: The electric charge was shown by a glow.
• Since 1752, thanks to Benjamin Franklin's kite experiment, we have known that lightning is caused by nothing other than natural electricity.
• In 1772, Allessandro Volta built the first battery in which electricity was generated by a chemical reaction. The unit for measuring the electrical voltage is also named after him. You can find out how a battery works in another article.
• André Marie Ampère researched the connection between magnetism and electricity in 1820. He is the eponym for the unity of voltage.
• With the industrial revolution, electricity was also used in everyday life, but initially only for illuminating streets.
• After Joseph Wilson Swan invented the carbon filament lamp in 1878, the electric light also entered private households.
• Werner von Siemens was a pioneer in the field of electrification and the use of electricity to drive machines. His patent for his dynamo goes back to 1866. Without this machine, the electric motor would hardly have been developed. We explain in another article how a dynamo works.
• There was no extensive power grid at the time. Back then, direct current was still used and not alternating current as we use it today.

History of electricity: direct current becomes alternating current

In 1881, an invention made it possible for the first time to transport electricity over long distances: the transformer.

• That was not in Thomas Edison Sinn, who had patented his carbon filament lamps in 1880 and himself had power plants for his regional direct current networks.
• The entrepreneur George Westinghouse, Edison's rival, built AC power networks in 1886. However, he had no patent for the production of light bulbs. He invented the Westinghouse Stopper Lamp to offer licensed light bulbs for his network.
• A snowstorm caused a death in New York in 1888 due to damage to power lines. Now the issue of security related to electricity has come up and DC has fallen into disrepute.
• In the same year, New York introduced the death penalty through the electric chair and one of Edison's companies was commissioned to develop it. This was operated with alternating current - in order to brand it as dangerous.
• Westinghouse, however, could not be stopped and held against it. Finally, he received the order to supply the Chicago World's Fair with electricity in 1893. The alternating current was finally established in 1896 when Buffalo was connected to the power grid.

History of electricity in Germany

Electrification also started in Germany in the 1880s.

• The first electric street lamps were put into operation in Berlin in 1882. A total of 36 lanterns illuminated Potsdamer Platz and Leipziger Straße with electricity.
• In the years from 1890 electricity also found its way into other areas, for example with the first electric trams.
• Private households only used electricity on a large scale from the 1920s onwards.