Thales of Miletus.

Thales, who was born in 640 B.C., was a man of exceptional wisdom and one of the Seven Sages of Ancient Greece.He was the father of Greek, and consequently of European philosophy and science.His speculations embraced a wide range of subjects relating to political as well as to celestial matters.One must remember that even up to the 18th century there was no clear distinction between philosophy and science, both being products of the human mind in its attempts to explain reality.

Thales had studied astronomy in Egypt so he was able to draw up accurate tables forecasting when the River Nile would be in flood.But he first became widely known by anticipating an eclipse of the sun for May 585 B.C., which happened to coincide with the final battle of the war between the Lydians and the Persians.He had used some tables drawn up by Babylonian astronomers, but he did not succeed in forecasting the exact day (May 28th) or the hour of the spectacular event.

It can well be said that Thales was the first man ever recorded to have cornered the market in a commodity: having foreseen a three-year drought he bought up large quantities of olive oil and stored it for sale at a later date.

But who could possibly have imagined that one of Thales' original speculations would affect the Radio Amateurs of the 20th Century? He believed that certain inanimate substances, like lodestones (magnetic rocks) and the resin amber, possessed psyche (a soul).

Many centuries had to elapse before this soul was identified as static electricity and magnetism and harnessed for the generation of mains electricity which dramatically altered the pattern of life on our planet - and also led to the creation of our hobby of Amateur Radio.

About 400 years ago an English scientist called William Gilbert (1544-1603), who had read about the unexplained observation of Thales, also became interested in the intangible property and decided to call it electricity, from the classical Greek word for amber, which is electron.