Ancient History
6th century BC: Thales of Miletus is credited with observing that rubbing fur on various substances, such as amber, would cause an attraction between the two, which is now known to be caused by static electricity. The Ancient Greeks noted that the amber buttons could attract light objects such as hair and that if the amber was rubbed sufficiently a spark would jump.
3rd century BC: the Baghdad Battery is dated from this period. It resembles a galvanic cell and is believed by some to have been used for electroplating, although there is no common consensus on the purpose of these devices nor whether they were, indeed, even electrical in nature.
1st century BC: Pliny in his Natural History records the story of a shepherd Magnes who discovered the magnetic properties of some iron stones, "it is said, made this discovery, when, upon taking his herds to pasture, he found that the nails of his shoes and the iron ferrel of his staff adhered to the ground."
Read more about this topic: Timeline Of Electromagnetic Theory
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And ancient Ireland knew it all.
Whether man die in his bed
Or the rifle knocks him dead,”
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“The greatest horrors in the history of mankind are not due to the ambition of the Napoleons or the vengeance of the Agamemnons, but to the doctrinaire philosophers. The theories of the sentimentalist Rousseau inspired the integrity of the passionless Robespierre. The cold-blooded calculations of Karl Marx led to the judicial and business-like operations of the Cheka.”
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