Birth of Amplification Before Vacuum Tubes [Historical]

Tracking back the history of electricity, we see that the possibility of transmitting electrical signals very quickly was conceived soon after English physicist Stephen Gray (~16661736) discovered the difference between insulators and conductors in 1731, the latter being able to transmit electric virtue. In fact, Charles-François de Cisternay du Fay (16991739), a French aristocrat, retired army officer, and scientist, started experimenting in France shortly after visiting Gray in England. His research drew the attention of Jean- Antoine Nollet (17001770), a French scientist and du Fay´s assistant, known as Abbé Nollet because he was educated in religious schools (though he was never ordained). In 1746, he arranged some 200 monks in a circle 1.6 km in circumference, connected them with iron wires, and then discharged Leyden jars (early capacitors) through this circuit. He observed that the monks reacted simultaneously to the electric shock, clearly showing that electricity is transmitted at a very high speed.