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Show Electricity's Beginnings. The term "electricity" was derived from the Greek word meaning amber. Electricity itself is earliest described by Theophra3tus (321 B. C.) and Pliny (70 A. D.), who mention the power of amber to attract straw and dry leaves. Dr. Gilbert of Colchester, physician to Queen Elizabeth (1540-1 C03) may be considered the founder of the science, as he appears to have been the first philosopher who carefully repeated the observations of the ancients and applied ap-plied to them the principles of philosophical philo-sophical investigation. |