Historical Beginnings of Theories of Electricity （历史起源理论的电力）.pdf

Back Historical Beginnings of Theories of Electricity and Magnetism Michael Fowler U Va Physics The first records of electricity and magnetism The most primitive electrical and magnetic phenomena -- the attraction of dry light material such as chaff to rubbed amber, and the attraction of iron to loadstone -- were no doubt observed before recorded history began. However, as far as I can find, these phenomena were not recorded by the Egyptians or any other pre-Greek civilization. The first definite statement is by Thales of Miletus (about 585B.C.) who said loadstone attracts iron because it has a soul. The prevailing view at the time was that movement of any kind indicated life, or a soul, or a god. In fact, it was advanced thinking on Thales’ part to think that the loadstone’s moving of the iron was caused by itself rather than by the intervention of some god. Actually Miletus was a very multicultural environment -- a flourishing commercial city in Asia Minor (now part of Turkey), trading with Babylon and also Egypt, where Thales travelled. This mixture of cultures meant that there was not a strongly repressive religious orthodoxy, as was often the case in primitive (and not so primitive) societies, so freedom of inquiry was tolerated. Sad to report, this did not lead to a more enlightened political system -- it was a slave based society, with bloody rebellion and repression. An early Greek word for the sun - ηλεχτορ- pronounced elector - was also used to describe amber, because of its sunshiny color. Amber is the fossilized resin of a now extinct coniferous tree, almost all of it comes from the Baltic region in Northern Europe. Of course, this is the stuff that preserves insects from millions of years ago. It was greatly prized in the early world as jewelry, and used as such in Greece from the earliest recorded times. Amber came to be called electron by the Greek classic writers, but this term also referred to native gold and silver-gold al