Yes, what was it? An invention, or a discovery?
It could be a discovery because all the things from which electricity is being made had the potential to make it. I am not too sure. Any ideas?
If the answer is too simple, I'll be feeling very stupid... 
Join the club! I feel that way all the time and am sure there must be others like us. For me it was a very good question. This is what I found at: http://www.trivia-library.com/b/accidental-scientific-discovery-and-invention-electric-current.htm. It was an accidental discovery.
I was particularly impressed with the quotation from Sir Alexander Fleming, whoever that was. Life is a bit like that! 
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Accidental Scientific Discovery and Invention - Electric Current
Sponsored LinksAbout the accidental scientific discovery of electric current, history and information.
ACCIDENTAL SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERIES
One sometimes finds what one is not looking for.
--Sir Alexander Fleming
Discovery: Electric current
Discoverer: Luigi Galvani, Italy
Year: 1781
How Discovered: Galvani, professor of anatomy at Bologna University, Italy, was working on the effect of electricity on the nerves and muscles of animals. One day, while Galvani was using a steel scalpel to dissect a frog, his assistant generated a spark from the electrostatic machine in the same room. The spark caused an electric circuit to be completed, whereupon "suddenly all the muscles of the frog's limbs were seen to be violently contracted just as though they had been seized with a violent cramp." The strange and unexpected twitching of the dead frog's muscles led Galvani to the discovery of current electricity. He referred to this phenomenon as "animal electricity," a concept corrected later by Alessandro Volta. Incidentally it is believed that it was not Galvani, but his wife, who first noticed the contraction of the frog's muscles.
© 1975 - 1981 by David Wallechinsky & Irving Wallace
Reproduced with permission from "The People's Almanac" series of books.
All rights reserved.
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http://www.trivia-library.com/b/accidental-scientific-discovery-and-invention-electric-current.htm Wasnt it a discovery? I mean... electricity is basically the product of electrons and protons producing energy isnt it? ( I think I learned this in physics class, but I forgot most of the stuff..)
And protons and electrons were definitely not inventions...
Discovered.
If you say invented, that's like saying America was invented. Electricity always existed, it was simply discovered.
electricity itself was discovered - because it already existed -
the invention was in how to use it.
Electricity was definitely discovered. The things that use it were invented.
Whoever invented it would have had to rewritten the laws of physics to do so, and he wouldn't have existed in the first place anyway..
DC was discovered, but AC was invented, yo.
Yeah, I would have to agree. Lightning been around for a lot longer than Ben Franklin. So, I would have to say that is was discovered, not invented. Although, I'm sure glad is was discovered!
As we know it: a steady flow of DC or AC power?
For that, 'invented' may be the better word, but static electricity was certainly 'discovered'.
Sometimes the two words are not that dissimilar.
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| Electricity (from New Latin ēlectricus, "amber-like") is a general term that encompasses a variety of phenomena resulting from the presence and flow of electric charge. These include many easily recognizable phenomena such as lightning and static electricity, but in addition, less familiar concepts such as the electromagnetic field and electromagnetic induction. |
Source: wikipedia.org
Hence Electricity is a phenomenon that always existed. People knew about it much before the modern scientists could understand the reasons of its occurrence or how to use it as a form of energy.
So clearly I would "Electricity" was Discovered
Ways to generate, store , transmit and use "Electric current" were InventedMost definitely discovered.
We invented objects to master and and control it.
Electricity was a discovery, not an invention.
The phenomenon exists in nature--lightning is an example of where it appears without human intervention. It just had to be found for what it was.
I have to agree that electricity was discovered. Like almost eveyone else here has pointed out that it has always existed we have only discovered it, and then invented ways to generate, transfer, and store it!
Over time as humans work more with it, and discover more about it, they will begin to unlock so many new energy sources.
I think that the understanding of electricity is changing astro-physics, just take a look at
www.thunderbolts.info
Quite a bit of research done to support the electric universe model. In simple terms the electric universe model is the model of the universe where electricity is the driving mechanism behind celestial mechanics, not gravity.
Actually if elecricity is the driving force of the universe the need for black holes disappears. Black holes are a mathmatical creation needed to discribe a universe where gravity is the driving force.
So much of what they talk about when it comes to astro-physics is just crazy way out there stuff, that they make so complicated by insisting that gravity is the main force in the universe, and all others are subordinate!!
But I digress!! The main point is that it was discovered 
Dave It was both an invention and a discovery, The discovery of its effects and the invention of arguments to explain those effects. So the mastering of a natural fenomenon is a chain intercalated links of discovery and invention. One failure in one link can brake the whole chain an the theory falls clamorously. But we are use to forgive the absence of some link, for example th existence of electrons was not necesary to invent a theory of current flux. It was a current of 'electric fluid' a temporary plastic link in the iron chain.
well, you invent something that does not exist, and you discover something that is already there! static electricity as always been there in lightening! Electricity is more of a discovery to me!!!
Invention of electricity was done long years ago,
Its study in physics is termed as electrostatics.
The word 'electricity' is derived from a term "electron" means amber
thus find/revealing of electic nature was done in SCIENTIFIC manner,
So it is Purely Invention just like invention of electorn, proton, quarks etc
i think every one will agree with it
It is a semantic issue.
Strictly speaking I would have to say that electricity was a discovery. We can, however, use the word 'invention' to mean a discovery or a finding.
Maybe it is relevant to ask whether electricity is
a) an abstract idea born in the mind
In this case, it would be in invention, since we created the idea. "To create something fictional for a particular purpose" is inventing.
b) a thing that existed before we thought about it
In this perspective, we did not create the thing since it existed before. Rather we discovered it because we came across the thing.
I think that electricity is an abstract notion attached to something in reality, so then discovery and invention could both be used.
Thus one would choose the right word depending on whether one refers to the concept and ideas behind electricity (invention) or the behavior of electricity in the real world (discovery).
That argument takes us nowhere.
All words are abstractions. Some are abstractions of observable reality, some are not.
Electricity is an observable phenomenon. Whether we choose the label 'electricity' or 'billybob' doesn't really change that fact that electricity is a flow of electrical charge, which exists as a 'natural' phenomenon.
OK, all words have an abstract part, and some words also have part we can observe.
Electricity has both an abstract part (a way of understanding flowing electrons for example), and a physical part (the flowing of electrons, if you know what I mean).
1) One can look at the word electricity as being more of one part than another.
2) If one can, then perhaps invention would be a better word to use when referring more to the abstract part, and discovery would be a better word to use when referring more to the physical part.
By saying that the argument leads nowhere, you disagree with one of the statements (I think). Which one?
You miss the point.
All words are abstractions. There is no such thing as a 'car' unless we all agree that a certain symbology (the word car) is representative of a certain observable 'thing'. We choose to discriminate and say something with an engine and 2 wheels is not a car but a motorbike, and a vehicle over a certain size is not a car but a van or a lorry. These are all abstractions. The same applies to all words.
Descriptions of electricity are all agreed symbologies which represent observable phenomena. Thus we talk about current, resistance, voltage, capacitance etc. All these symbols are representative of physical phenomena which we can observe (though often only indirectly).
That is why it doesn't advance the debate....
Electron flow is something that happens. We put a label on it and call it electricity. The word itself is an invention but the phenomenon was there before the word and so the concept is a discovery.
you cannot invent something that has always been there, it jus took a while for someone to harness it, its like air, air has always been here, you cannot make it
It was discovered, since it always existed.
It is a natural phenomenon
For example our nervous systems already used electricity long before we had names for it. It already existed in other creatures before we existed.
Or that of other animals.
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| How Discovered: Galvani, professor of anatomy at Bologna University, Italy, was working on the effect of electricity on the nerves and muscles of animals. One day, while Galvani was using a steel scalpel to dissect a frog, his assistant generated a spark from the electrostatic machine in the same room. T |
hehe i know this test - and i remember it was really funny when the frog was "dancing" on our negative electrode
