Long before any knowledge of electricity existed, people were aware of shocks from
electric fish.
Ancient Egyptian texts dating from
2750 BCE referred to these fish as the "Thunderer of the
Nile", and described them as the "protectors" of all other fish. Electric fish were again reported millennia later by
ancient Greek,
Roman and
Arabic naturalists and
physicians.
[2] Several ancient writers, such as
Pliny the Elder and
Scribonius Largus, attested to the numbing effect of
electric shocksdelivered by
catfish and
electric rays, and knew that such shocks could travel along conducting objects.
[3] Patients suffering from ailments such as
gout or
headache were directed to touch electric fish in the hope that the powerful jolt might cure them.
[4] Possibly the earliest and nearest approach to the discovery of the identity of
lightning, and electricity from any other source, is to be attributed to the
Arabs, who before the 15th century had the
Arabicword for lightning
ra'ad (
Arabic: رعد) applied to the
electric ray.
[5]
Ancient cultures around the
Mediterraneanknew that certain objects, such as rods of
amber, could be rubbed with cat's fur to attract light objects like feathers.
Thales of Miletusmade a series of observations on
static electricity around 600 BCE, from which he believed that friction rendered amber
magnetic, in contrast to minerals such as
magnetite, which needed no rubbing.
[6][7][8][9] Thales was incorrect in believing the attraction was due to a magnetic effect, but later science would prove a link between magnetism and electricity. According to a controversial theory, the
Parthians may have had knowledge of
electroplating, based on the 1936 discovery of the
Baghdad Battery, which resembles a
galvanic cell, though it is uncertain whether the artifact was electrical in nature.
[10]
), but either too many people dont agree, or too many people don't like approval voting, so those are kind of not competitive :/ Between the North and west posts, i prefer the west (and again, voted for that in my approval vote), because either way i think we'll end up with a pirate problem in the short/mid term, and a too-powerful and aggressive trelli in the mid/long term, and i'd rather do something to counter that, rather than adding another front for us to care about, in the form of the farthest front we've got.
