Year | Event |
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600 BCE | Ancient Greek philosopher Thales of Miletus described static electricity by rubbing fur on substances such as amber. |
1600 | English scientist William Gilbert coined the word electricus after careful experiments. He also explained the magnetism of Earth. |
1660 | German scientist Otto von Guericke invented a device that creates static electricity. This is the first ever electric generator. |
1705 | English scientist Francis Hauksbee made a glass ball that glowed when spun and rubbed with the hand |
1720 | English scientist Stephen Gray made the distinction between insulators and conductors. |
1745 | German physicist Ewald Georg von Kleist and Dutch scientist Pieter van Musschenbroek invented Leyden jars. |
1752 | American scientist Benjamin Franklin showed that lightning was electrical by flying a kite and explained how Leyden jars work. |
1780 | Italian scientist Luigi Galvani discovered Galvanic action in living tissue. |
1785 | French physicist Charles-Augustin de Coulomb formulated and published Coulomb's law in his paper Premier Mémoire sur l’Électricité et le Magnétisme. |
1785 | French mathematician Pierre-Simon Laplace developed the Laplace transform to transform a linear differential equation into an algebraic equation. Later, his transform became a tool in circuit analysis. |
1800 | Italian physicist Alessandro Volta invented the battery. |
1804 | Thomas Young: Wave theory of light, Vision and color theory |
1808 | Atomic theory by John Dalton |
1816 | English inventor Francis Ronalds built the first working electric telegraph. |
1820 | Danish physicist Hans Christian Ørsted accidentally discovered that an electric field creates a magnetic field. |
1820 | One week after Ørsted's discovery, French physicist André-Marie Ampère published his law. He also proposed the right-hand screw rule. |
1821 | German scientist Thomas Johann Seebeck discovered thermoelectricity. |
1825 | English physicist William Sturgeon developed the first electromagnet. |
1827 | German physicist Georg Ohm introduced the concept of electrical resistance. |
1831 | English physicist Michael Faraday published the law of induction (Joseph Henry developed the same law independently). |
1831 | American scientist Joseph Henry in the United States developed a prototype DC motor. |
1832 | French instrument maker Hippolyte Pixii in France developed a prototype DC generator. |
1833 | Michael Faraday developed the laws of electrolysis. |
1833 | Michael Faraday invented the thermistor |
1833 | English physicist Samuel Hunter Christie invented the Wheatstone bridge (It is named after Charles Wheatstone who popularized it). |
1836 | Irish priest (and later scientist) Nicholas Callan invented the transformer in Ireland. |
1837 | English scientist Edward Davy invented the electric relay. |
1839 | French scientist Edmond Becquerel discovered the photovoltaic effect. |
1844 | American inventor Samuel Morse developed telegraphy and the Morse code. |
1844 | Woolrich Generator, the earliest electrical generator used in an industrial process. |
1845 | German physicist Gustav Kirchhoff developed the two laws now known as Kirchhoff's Circuit laws. |
1850 | Belgian engineer Floris Nollet invented (and patented) a practical AC generator. |
1851 | Heinrich Daniel Ruhmkorff developed the first coil, which he patented in 1851 |
1855 | First utilization of AC (in electrotherapy) by French neurologist Guillaume Duchenne. |
1856 | Belgian engineer Charles Bourseul proposed telephony. |
1856 | First electrically powered lighthouse in England |
1860 | German scientist Johann Philipp Reis invented the microphone. |
1862 | Scottish physicist James Clerk Maxwell published the four equations bearing his name. |
1866 | The Transatlantic telegraph cable |
1873 | Belgian engineer Zenobe Gramme who developed the DC generator accidentally discovered that a DC generator also works as a DC motor during an exhibit in Vienna. |
1876 | Paper capacitor manufacturing started. |
1876 | Russian engineer Pavel Yablochkov invented the electric carbon arc lamp. |
1876 | Scottish inventor Alexander Graham Bell patented the telephone. |
1877 | American inventor Thomas Edison invented the phonograph. |
1877 | German industrialist Werner von Siemens developed a primitive loudspeaker. |
1878 | First electric street lighting in Paris, France |
1878 | First hydroelectric plant in Cragside, England |
1878 | William Crookes invents the Crookes tube, a prototype of Vacuum tubes |
1878 | English engineer Joseph Swan invented the Incandescent light bulb. |
1879 | American physicist Edwin Herbert Hall discovered the Hall Effect. |
1879 | Thomas Alva Edison introduced a long-lasting filament for the incandescent lamp. |
1880 | French physicists Pierre Curie and Jacques Curie discovered Piezoelectricity. |
1882 | First thermal power stations in London and New York |
1887 | German American inventor Emile Berliner invented the gramophone record. |
1888 | German physicist Heinrich Hertz proves the existence of electromagnetic waves, including what would come to be called radio waves |
1888 | Italian physicist and electrical engineer Galileo Ferraris publishes a paper on the induction motor, and Serbian-American engineer Nikola Tesla gets a US patent on the same device |
1890 | Thomas Alva Edison invents the fuse |
1893 | During the Fourth International Conference of Electricians in Chicago, electrical units were defined |
1893 | English physicist J. J. Thomson invented waveguides. |
1894 | Italian inventor Guglielmo Marconi begins developing the first radio wave based wireless telegraphy communication system |
1895 | Indian physicist Jagadish Chandra Bose conducts experiments in extremely high frequency millimetre waves using a semiconductor junction to detect radio waves |
1895 | In a series of field experiments, Marconi finds that he could transmit radio waves at much greater range than the half-mile maximum physicist of the time were predicting, achieving ranges up to 2 miles (3.2 km) and transmitting over hills |
1895 | Russian physicist Alexander Popov finds a use for radio waves, building a radio receiver that can detect lightning strikes |
1895 | Discovery of X-rays by Wilhelm Röntgen |
1896 | Electrolytic capacitor patent was granted to Charles Pollak. |
1897 | German inventor Karl Ferdinand Braun invented cathode ray oscilloscope (CRO). |
1901 | First transatlantic radio transmission by Guglielmo Marconi |
1901 | American engineer Peter Cooper Hewitt invented the Fluorescent lamp. |
1904 | English engineer John Ambrose Fleming invented the diode. |
1906 | American inventor Lee de Forest invented the triode. |
1908 | Scottish engineer Alan Archibald Campbell-Swinton, laid out the principles of television. |
1909 | Mica capacitor was invented by William Dubilier. |
1911 | Dutch physicist Heike Kamerlingh Onnes discovered Superconductivity. |
1912 | American engineer Edwin Howard Armstrong developed the electronic oscillator. |
1915 | French physicist Paul Langevin and Russian engineer Constantin Chilowsky invented sonar. |
1917 | American engineer Alexander M. Nicholson invented the crystal oscillator. |
1918 | French physicist Henri Abraham and Eugene Bloch invented the multivibrator. |
1919 | Edwin Howard Armstrong developed the standard AM radio receiver. |
1921 | Metre Convention was extended to include the electrical units. |
1921 | Edith Clarke invents the "Clarke calculator", a graphical calculator for solving line equations involving hyperbolic function, allowing electrical engineers to simplify calculations for inductance and capacity in power transmission lines |
1924 | Japanese engineer Kenjiro Takayanagi began a research program on electronic television. |
1925 | Austrian American engineer Julius Edgar Lilienfeld patented the first FET (which became popular much later). |
1926 | Yagi–Uda antenna was developed by the Japanese engineers Hidetsugu Yagi and Shintaro Uda. |
1926 | Japanese engineer Kenjiro Takayanagi demonstrated CRT television with 40-line resolution, the first working example of a fully electronic television receiver. |
1927 | Japanese engineer Kenjiro Takayanagi increased television resolution to 100 lines, unrivaled until 1931. |
1927 | American engineer Harold Stephen Black invented negative feedback amplifier. |
1927 | German Physicist Max Dieckmann invented video camera tube. |
1928 | Raman scattering discovered by Indian physicist C. V. Raman and Indian physicist Kariamanickam Srinivasa Krishnan, providing basis for later Raman laser |
1928 | Japanese engineer Kenjiro Takayanagi was the first to transmit human faces in half-tones on television, influencing the later work of Vladimir K. Zworykin |
1928 | First experimental Television broadcast in the U.S. |
1929 | First public TV broadcast in Germany |
1931 | First wind energy plant in the Soviet Union |
1934 | Akira Nakashima, Claude Shannon and Viktor Shetakov switching circuit theory lays the foundation for digital electronics |
1936 | Dudley E. Foster and Stuart William Seeley developed the FM detector circuit. |
1936 | Austrian engineer Paul Eisler invented the printed circuit board. |
1936 | Scottish Scientist Robert Watson-Watt developed the radar concept which was proposed earlier. |
1938 | Russian-American engineer Vladimir K. Zworykin developed the iconoscope. |
1939 | Edwin Howard Armstrong developed the FM radio receiver. |
1939 | Russell and Sigurd Varian developed the first Klystron tube in the US. |
1941 | German engineer Konrad Zuse developed the first programmable computer in Berlin. |
1944 | Scottish Engineer John Logie Baird developed the first color picture tube. |
1945 | Transatlantic telephone cable |
1948 | First transistor: Bipolar junction transistor (BJT) by american engineers John Bardeen and Walter Houser Brattain together with their group leader William Shockley |
1948 | Hungarian-British physicist Dennis Gabor invented holography. |
1950s | Solid electrolyte tantalum capacitor was invented by Bell Laboratories. |
1950 | French physicist Alfred Kastler invented the MASER. |
1951 | First nuclear power plant in the US |
1952 | Japanese engineer Jun-ichi Nishizawa invented the avalanche photodiode |
1953 | First fully transistorized computer by Bell Labs (U.S.): TRADIC |
1959 | First working discrete MOSFET: p-MOSFET by Bell Labs |
1958 | American engineer Jack Kilby invented the integrated circuit (IC). |
1960 | American engineer Theodore Maiman develops the first laser |
1962 | Nick Holonyak invented the LED. |
1963 | First home Videocassette recorder (VCR) |
1963 | Electronic calculator |
1966 | Fiber-optic communication by Kao and Hockham |
2008 | American scientist R. Stanley Williams invented the memristor which was proposed by Leon O. Chua in 1971. |