A brief history of electricity

In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, theories and experimentation continued, with

the definitive link between the theory of electricity and lightning (1752);

the theory of bioelectromagnetics, which established electricity as the mechanism by which neurons passed signals to the muscles (1791);

the recognition of electromagnetism (1820); and

the invention of the electric motor (1821).

Discovery and invention continued throughout the latter half of the eighteenth century and into the nineteenth with such developments as the electric battery, the telephone, radiotelegraphy, light bulbs, and rotating magnetic fields.

Source: The Story of Technology by Daniel M. Gerstein