In 1751 Benjamin Franklin published “Experiments and Observations on Electricity, Made at Philadelphia in America.”
Experiments summarized in this booklet determined the existence of positive and negative charges, and the difference between insulators and conductors. This work led to the invention of the lightning rod. Its complete construction was popularized in Poor Richard’s Almanack in 1753. This is the first practical engineering application of electricity.
A unifying theory covering static electricity, lightning, and stored charge was invented.
1750-1799
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Image Credit: Public Domain (Author's Choice)Image Caption: "Experiments and Observations on Electricity" by Benjamin Franklin, currently located at the American Philosophical Society LibraryEra_date_from: 1751
2009
The first known pumping system providing drinking and wash water in the North American colonies. The building (still standing) is dated 1761, but it was preceded by an experimental frame building dated 1754. Before the Bethlehem built its system, assigned carriers would daily haul water up the hill from a well near the city gate. A wooden waterwheel, driven by the flow of Monocacy Creek, drove wooden pumps which lifted the water through wooden pipes to the top of the hill where the water was distributed by gravity.
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Image Credit: Courtesy Flickr/Discover Lehigh Valley (CC BY 2.0)Image Caption: Through multiple restorations (1964, 1972, 1975), the Bethlehem Waterworks still stands today, despite being over 250 years old.Era_date_from: 1761
1971
"Benjamin Franklin, American electrician, printer, and diplomat, spent many years on Craven Street. He lived at No. 7 between 1772 and 1775 and at No. 36 from 1757-1762 and again from 1764-1772. During these years, Franklin popularized the study of electricity, performed experiments, and served as an adviser on lightning conductors."
(The plaque may be viewed at the Franklin house museum at 36 Craven St, London, England.)
Franklin, considered one of the founders of modern Physics, was already a famous scientist when he arrived at Craven Street in 1757.
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Image Credit: Courtesy Flickr/Elliott Brown (CC BY-SA 2.0)Image Caption: The Benjamin Franklin House on Craven Street in London, where Franklin lived for 16 years, and where he did much of his most famous work. Converted into a museum.Era_date_from: 1757
2003
Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier studied at the Académie des Sciences de l'Institut de France (then "Collège Mazarin") from 1754 to 1761. He was elected to the Royal Academy of Sciences in 1768, where he presented his important studies on oxygen in chemistry. These began with a "pli cacheté" of Nov. 2, 1772, and, after he experimentally proved the chemical composition of water by the quantitative method, culminated in his abandoning of the phlogistic theory in 1785.
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Image Credit: Public Domain (Copyright Exp.)Image Caption: An early line engraving of Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier, made sometime in the early 19th century by Louis Jean Desire Delaistre, after an original piece by Julien Leopold Boilly.Era_date_from: 1789
1999
Visionary Alexander Hamilton, the United States' first Secretary of the Treasury, visited the Great Falls of the Passaic River with George Washington in 1778. The 77-foot-high, 280-foot-wide waterfall inspired his dream of abundant, inexpensive energy as the means for economic independence from foreign markets.
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Image Credit: Courtesy Flickr/Ken Lund (CC BY-SA 2.0)Image Caption: Great Falls Raceway and Power SystemEra_date_from: 1792
1977
Innovations
