Thales of Miletus.
Thales, who was born in 640 B.C., was a man of exceptional wisdom
and one of the Seven Sages of Ancient Greece. He was the father of
Greek, and consequently of European philosophy and science. His
speculations embraced a wide range of subjects relating to political
as well as to celestial matters. One must remember that even up to
the 18th century there was no clear distinction between philosophy and
science, both being products of the human mind in its attempts to
explain reality.
Thales had studied astronomy in Egypt so he was able to draw up
accurate tables forecasting when the River Nile would be in flood.
But he first became widely known by anticipating an eclipse of the sun
for May 585 B.C., which happened to coincide with the final battle of
the war between the Lydians and the Persians. He had used some tables
drawn up by Babylonian astronomers, but he did not succeed in
forecasting the exact day (May 28th) or the hour of the spectacular
event.
It can well be said that Thales was the first man ever recorded to
have cornered the market in a commodity: having foreseen a three-year
drought he bought up large quantities of olive oil and stored it for
sale at a later date.
But who could possibly have imagined that one of Thales' original
speculations would affect the Radio Amateurs of the 20th Century? He
believed that certain inanimate substances, like lodestones (magnetic
rocks) and the resin amber, possessed psyche (a soul).
Many centuries had to elapse before this soul was identified as
static electricity and magnetism and harnessed for the generation of
mains electricity which dramatically altered the pattern of life on
our planet--and also led to the creation of our hobby of Amateur
Radio.
About 400 years ago an English scientist called William Gilbert
(1544-1603), who had read about the unexplained observation of Thales,
also became interested in the intangible property and decided to call
it electricity, from the classical Greek word for amber, which is
electron.