"Electricity, through its etymology at least, traces its lineage back to Homeric times. In the Odyssey reference is made to the 'necklace hung with bits of amber' presented by the Phœnician traders to the Queen of Syra. Amber was highly prized by the ancients, having been extensively used as an ornamental gem, and many curious theories were suggested as to its origin. Some of these, although mythical, were singularly near the truth, and it is an interesting coincidence that in the well-known myth concerning the ill-fated and rash youth who so narrowly escaped wrecking the solar chariot and the terrestrial sphere, amber, the first known source of electricity, and the thunder-bolts of Jupiter are linked together. It is not unlikely that this substance was indebted, for some of the romance that clung to it through ages, to the fact that when rubbed it attracts light bodies. This property it was known to possess in the earliest times: it is the one single experiment in electricity which has come down to us from the remotest antiquity. ... The power of certain fishes, notably what is known as the 'torpedo,' to produce electricity, was known at an early period, and was commented on by Pliny and Aristotle. {770} ... Up to the sixteenth [century] there seems to have been no attempt to study electrical phenomena in a really scientific manner. Isolated facts which almost thrust themselves upon observers, were noted, and, in common with a host of other natural phenomena, were permitted to stand alone, with no attempt at classification, generalization, or examination through experiment. ... Dr. Gilbert can justly be called the creator of the science of electricity and magnetism. His experiments were prodigious in number, and many of his conclusions were correct and lasting. To him we are indebted for the name 'electricity,' which he bestowed upon the power or property which amber exhibited in attracting light bodies, borrowing the name from the substance itself, in order to define one of its attributes. ... This application of experiment to the study of electricity, begun by Gilbert three hundred years ago, was industriously pursued by those who came after him, and the next two centuries witnessed a rapid development of science. Among the earlier students of this period were the English philosopher, Robert Boyle, and the celebrated burgomaster of Magdeburg, Otto von Guericke. The latter first noted the sound and light accompanying electrical excitation. These were afterwards independently discovered by Dr. Wall, an Englishman, who made the somewhat prophetic observation, 'This light and crackling seems in some degree to represent thunder and lightning.' Sir Isaac Newton made a few experiments in electricity, which he exhibited to the Royal Society. ... Francis Hawksbee was an active and useful