Who Discovered "Electric Potential"?
Who was the first person to appreciate the value and usefulness of normalizing electric potential energy to each charge carrier?


Michael Faraday starting in 1812 then in 1832, he completed a series of experiments aimed at investigating the fundamental nature of electricity; Faraday used "static", batteries, and "animal electricity" to produce the phenomena of electrostatic attraction, electrolysis, magnetism, etc.

The name of Potential was first given to this function by
George Green,  who made it the basis of his treatment of electricity.

Green's essay was neglected by mathematicians till 1846, and before that time most of its important theorems had been rediscovered by Gauss, Chasles, Sturm, and Thomson Essay on the Application of Mathematical
Analysis to the Theories
of Electricity
and Magnetism,
Nottingham, 1828. Eeprinted in Crelle's Journal, and in Mr. Ferrer's
edition of Green's Works. 

Ref J.C. Maxwell A Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism 1873