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    Before the discovery of electricity, what was the electric eel called?

    Question #119868. Asked by Baloo55th. (Jan 10 11 3:21 PM)


    author

    		Good question. It was named so by Linnaeus in 1766.
    Not sure if it even had a name before that.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_eel

    That is, Linnaeus named it 'Electrophorus electricus', which does not mean 'electric eel'. It's not an eel, anyway.

    Long before any knowledge of electricity existed people were aware of shocks from electric fish. Ancient Egyptian texts dating from 2750 BC referred to these fish as the "Thunderer of the Nile", and described them as the "protectors" of all other fish.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electricity#History

    Jan 10 11, 4:57 PM
    Baloo55th

    		Can't take credit for the question - found it on the talk page of the Electric Eel article on Wikipedia. No-one had answered it. I couldn't, either, so I thought, well, why not?

    Jan 11 11, 4:00 PM

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