Perhaps the earliest use of complex numbers in circuit analysis was by Johann Victor Wietlisbach in 1879 in analysing the Maxwell bridge. Wietlisbach avoided using differential equations by expressing AC currents and voltages as exponential functions with imaginary exponents (see § Validity of complex representation). Wietlisbach found the required voltage was given by multiplying the current by a complex number (impedance), although he did not identify this as a general parameter in its own right.