Electrical conduction and insulators (Stephen Gray)
Conducción eléctrica y aislantes (Stephen Gray)
- Date
- 1729-1732 · confidence high
- Place
- Great Chart and Otterden Place, Kent, United Kingdom
- Credited to
- Stephen Gray (with Granville Wheler)
- Field
- Matter & energy
What was discovered
Gray showed that the electricity of a rubbed tube travels along cords and rods and that silk stops it. He thereby distinguished conductors from insulators and showed that electricity can be transmitted.
In his most famous experiment (1730) a boy suspended on silk cords attracted brass leaf when electrified.
What it led to
- the notion of conductor and insulator, basis of every circuit
- experiments on electrical transmission over distance (Gray, Wheler, Du Fay)
- the Leyden jar and early machines with insulated conductors