Powering
our world :
Today, electricity powers everything from
huge industrial machines to our computers
and smartphones, and lights our houses and
cities. But people have only been using
electricity as a source of energy for less
than 150 years.

1752:
Future American
statesman Benjamin
Franklin flew a kite with
a key attached to the string
into a thunderstorm to prove
that lightning is electrical.

1800:
Italian scientist Alessandro Volta
made the first battery that could
continuously provide electric
current to a circuit. It was
known as a Voltaic pile.

1831:
English scientist Michael Faraday
discovered electromagnetic induction
when he found that he could produce
an electric current by moving a magnet
in and out of a coil of wire.

1882:
Thomas Edison opened
the first central power
station for generating
electricity on Pearl
Street in Manhattan,
New York City.