Year
|
Event
|
600 BC |
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.[3]
|
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[4][5]
|
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[6][7]
|
1895 |
Indian physicist Jagadish Chandra Bose conducts experiments in extremely high frequency millimetre waves using a semiconductor junction to detect radio waves[8][9]
|
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[10][11]
|
1895 |
Russian physicist Alexander Popov finds a use for radio waves, building a radio receiver that can detect lightning strikes[12]
|
1895 |
Discovery of X-raysbyWilhelm 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 capacityinpower transmission lines[13]
|
1924 |
Japanese engineer Kenjiro Takayanagi began a research program on electronic television[14]
|
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,[15] the first working example of a fully electronic television receiver.[14]
|
1927 |
Japanese engineer Kenjiro Takayanagi increased television resolution to 100 lines, unrivaled until 1931[16]
|
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,[17] 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[18]
|
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[19]
|
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
|
1947 |
American engineers John Bardeen and Walter Houser Brattain together with their group leader William Shockley invented the transistor.
|
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[20]
|
1953 |
First fully transistorized computer in the U.S.
|
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
|