De Magnete

We can get into electrodynamics from classic electrodynamics.

In 1600, William Gilbert proposed in his De Magnete that electricity and magnetism, while both capable of causing attraction and repulsion of objects, were distinct effects.

Mariners had noticed that lightning strikes had the ability to disturb a compass needle.

The link between lightning and electricity was not confirmed until Benjamin Franklin's proposed experiments in 1752 were conducted on May 10th by Thomas Francois d'Alabarde of France using a 40-foot-tall iron rod instead of a kite, and he successfully extracted electrical sparks from a cloud.

In 1269, Peter Peregrinus de Maricourt wrote the Epistola de magnete, the first extant treatise describing the properties of magnets.

In 1282, the properties of magnets and the dry compasses were discussed by Al-Sharaf Umar II, a Yemeni physicist, astronomer, and geographer.

In 1600, William Gilbert published his On the Magnet and Magnetic Bodies and On the Great Magnet, the Earth.

In his work, he describes many of his experiments with his model Earth called the terrella.

From his experiments, he concluded that the Earth was itself magnetic and that this was the reason compasses pointed north, whereas previously some believed that it was the pole star Polaris or a large magnetic island on the North Pole that attracted the compass.

No fue hasta los años 1600 cuando las personas comenzaron a estudiar seriamente estos efectos.

Un médico inglés llamado William Gilbert empezó a elaborar teorías sobre la electricidad y publicó sus ideas en un libro llamado De Magnete.

La acumulación gradual de observaciones y experimentos durante los años 1700 transformó la electricidad de algo puramente místico en un tema digno de una investigación seria.

El ámbar y la fricción se convirtieron en puertas de entrada hacia la comprensión de una fuerza fundamental de la naturaleza.