In China, the ancients believed that the phenomenon of electricity was caused by the excitation of Yin and Yang, and Shuo Wen Jie Zi said that "electricity, Yin and Yang excite brilliance, from rain to spirit". "Vocabulary" includes "thunder from behind, electricity from application. Yin and yang become thin and become thunder, and discharge becomes electricity. " There is a record about static electricity in Lun Heng (about the first century AD, that is, the Eastern Han Dynasty). When amber or tortoise shell is rubbed, it can attract light and small objects, and it also describes the phenomenon that silk is rubbed to generate electricity. However, ancient China didn't know much about electricity.
Around 600 BC, the Greek philosopher Thales (640-546 BC) knew that the friction of amber would attract fluff or sawdust, which is called static electricity. Electricity in English means "amber" in ancient Greek. Static electricity in Greek is (elektron)
Modern exploration
/kloc-in the 0/8th century, the west began to explore various phenomena of electricity. American scientist Benjamin Franklin (1706 ~ 1790) thinks that electricity is a weightless fluid and exists in all objects. When an object gets more electricity than normal, it is called positively charged; If it is less than a positive constant, it is called negatively charged. The so-called "discharge" is the process from positive current to negative current. This theory is not completely correct, but it retains the names of positive charge and negative charge. The concept of "electricity" in this period is a material proposition.
Franklin did many experiments and put forward the concept of current for the first time. 1752, in a kite experiment, he put a kite with a key in the cloud with a metal wire, and the metal wire wet by rain led lightning in the air between his finger and the key, which proved that lightning in the air and electricity on the ground are the same thing.