Taken from wikipedia.com
On May 24, 1544 in the town of Colchester in Essex, England, William Gilbert was born. He was educated at St. John’s College in Cambridge, England, where he received all his degrees, a BA, MA and MD. He set up a medical practice in London and later became the President of the Royal College of Physicians. Gilbert served as physician to Queen Elizabeth I and King James I.
Gilbert’s most notable piece of work was his De Magnete, magneticisque corporibus, et de magno magnete tellure (Concerning Magnetism, Magnetic Bodies, and the Great Magnet Earth). De Magnete was a comprehensive, seven volume text which stood as the seminal text on magnetism for the next 200 years. In it, Gilbert differentiated between electricity and magnetism; studied the lodestone and amber; discovered the laws of attraction and repulsion; and identified the Earth as a large magnet, which helped increase understanding about the magnetic compass. He used the lodestone and a free spinning needle in experiments to determine the effect of the Earth’s poles on a compass.
As the Father of Electricity, it is no surprise that Gilbert coined the word “electricity” based on the Greek word for amber, as well as the terms “magnetic pole,” “electric force,” and “electrical attraction.” Gilbert distinguished the amber effect – that certain materials such as amber can become electrically charged by friction with other materials – as distinct from the magnetic effect. He also discovered that metals lose their magnetic charge when heated until white hot and do not regain magnetic charge until allowed to cool.
Prior to his death on December 10, 1603, Gilbert pioneered what is commonly known today as the Scientific Method. His work has inspired other great scientists such as Galileo and stands as the cornerstone of our understanding of magnets and electricity.
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