Electric Mania!

<p>The yin and the yang, the push and the pull, the light and the dark, the dirty and the clean, the good and the evil—this is electricity.</p>

<h4>Electricity! It’s magical. It’s mystical. We’ve been obsessed with harnessing its power for thousands of years.</h4>

<p>It was as far back as <strong>600 BC</strong> that <a href="https://www.bing.com/search?q=Thales+of+Miletus&amp;filters=sid%3adac91a90-5e1c-3e53-1b52-3273fda13f1f&amp;form=ENTLNK"><strong>Thales of Miletus</strong></a> wrote how amber could be charged by rubbing it. In<strong>1600,</strong> <a href="https://www.bing.com/search?q=William+Gilbert&amp;filters=sid%3ac2acd131-6bcb-b274-da6d-14b4940cbaf9&amp;form=ENTLNK">William Gilbert</a> translated the Greek word ‘<strong>amber</strong>’ to the word ‘<strong>electricity.’</strong></p>

<p>On June 15, <strong>1752</strong>, Benjamin Franklin promoted his theory that lightning was electrical by flying a kite during a lightning storm. Around this time, Michael Faraday discovered that moving a magnet inside a wire coil could generate electricity. From there, he built the first electric motor. He later built a generator and a transformer.</p>

<p>In <strong>1733, </strong>not long before Franklin’s famous stunt, Charles Francois du Fay made the distinction between the two forms of electricity, which he called <strong>resinous (-)</strong> and <strong>vitreous (+)</strong>. Benjamin Franklin and Ebenezer Kinnersley renamed them as <strong>negative</strong> and <strong>positive</strong>.</p>

<p>The Chinese were well aware of this universal truth from at least the <strong>3rd century BCE, </strong>and probably much longer. They called it <strong>yin and yang</strong>. This concept is one of the foundational components upon which Taoism is built.</p>

<p>The yin and the yang, the push and the pull, the light and the dark, the dirty and the clean, the good and the evil—this is electricity. This seeming conflict has inspired artists and philosophers as well as mathematicians and scientists down through history. Yet, for the Taoist, neither was “right” or “wrong.” Both were equally important to maintain the balance of the universe.</p>

<p>To read the rest of this essay please go to <a href="https://khmezek.substack.com/p/electric-mania">Electric Mania! - by Karen Hunt aka KH Mezek (substack.com)</a></p>