Today MCI goes back in time…. way, waaay back in time to the Elizabethan period. In fact, the person we want to celebrate today is William Gilbert. He was Elizabeth I's doctor. This extremely clever man was at the dawn of science as we know it and was the first person to distinguish between static electricity and magnetism. William Gilbert was born in Essex in this day in 1544. He went to Cambridge University and then practised as a medical doctor in London for some time. He also became the president of the College of Physicians in 1600.
The work that we are interested in though, is his work with magnetic and static electricity. Gilbert published a book in 1600 called 'De Magnete' which became accepted as the standard work on electrical magnetic phenomena in Europe. In this book, he suggested that the Earth was like a magnet with similar polarities. He also suggest that the Earth spins on an axis (a hypothesis which flew in the face of the accepted thought of the time - which was that the Earth was on a fixed axis). It is not surprising that it is said that Galileo himself was influenced by the text.
Gilbert was truly a man ahead of his time. His quest for knowledge drew him from the world of medicine to the precursor of the world of electrical engineering.
MCI hopes that you have all been interested to learn about this fascinating man.
Have a good weekend everyone!
