This article will review rapidly the development of plasma physics from the beginning. There is not very much to say about the time before 1900. There was essentially no theory of electricity. To be sure, there was a one‐fluid theory propounded by Franklin and a two‐fluid theory propounded by du Fay, but neither of these “theories” could predict anything quantitative. Therefore, they do not qualify fully as theories. They were merely pictures, and it did not matter which theory was held. The same conclusions were reached either way.

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