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Ben, Don't Fly that Kite!
Where did it all begin?
Around 600 BC Greeks found that by rubbing an 'electron' (a hard-fossilized resin that today is known as Amber) against a fur cloth, it would attract particles of straw. This strange effect remained a mystery for over 2000 years, until, around AD 1600, Dr William Gilbert investigated the reactions of amber and magnets and first recorded the word 'Electric' in a report on magnetism.
Benjamin Franklin was an American writer, publisher, scientist and diplomat. Franklin foolishly, in 1752, proved that lightning and the spark from amber was the same thing. The story is that Franklin fastened an iron spike to a silken kite, which he flew during a thunderstorm, while holding the end of the kite string by an iron key. When lightening flashed, a tiny spark jumped from the key to his wrist. The experiment proved Franklin's theory, but was extremely dangerous - He could easily have been killed.
In 1786, Luigi Galvani, an Italian professor of medicine, found that when a metal knife touched the leg of a dead frog, the leg twitched violently. Galvani thought that the muscles of the frog must contain electricity. By 1792, another Italian scientist, Alessandro Volta, disagreed: he realized that the main factors in Galvani's discovery were the two different metals - the steel knife and the tin plate, which the frog was laying. Volta showed that when moisture comes between two different metals, electricity is created. This led him to invent the first electric battery, the voltaic pile, which he made from thin sheets of copper and zinc separated by moist pasteboard.
That is how new kind of electricity was discovered, electricity that flowed steadily like a current of water instead of discharging itself in a single spark or shock. Volta showed that electricity could be made to travel from one place to another by wire, thereby making an important contribution to the science of electricity.
The ability to generate electric current on a practical scale goes to the English scientist, Michael Faraday. Faraday believed that if electricity could produce magnetism, why couldn't magnetism produce electricity. In 1831, Faraday found that electricity could be produced when a magnet was moved inside a coil of copper wire and it would cause a tiny electric current to flow through the wire.
Nearly 40 years went by before Thomas Edison in America built a practical generator. Edison's many inventions included the phonograph and an improved printing telegraph. In 1878 Joseph Swan, a British scientist, invented the incandescent filament lamp and within twelve months Edison made a similar discovery in America. Swan and Edison set up a joint company to produce the first practical filament lamp. Edison used his DC generator to provide electricity to light his laboratory and later to illuminate the first New York street to be lit by electric lamps, in September 1882. Edison's successes were not without controversy, however - although he was convinced of the merits of DC for generating electricity, other scientists in Europe and America recognized that DC brought major disadvantages.
Westinghouse was a famous American inventor and industrialist who purchased a patented motor for generating alternating current. The work of Westinghouse, Tesla and others gradually persuaded American society that the future lay with AC (alternating current) rather than DC (direct current) The AC generation enabled the transmission of large blocks of electrical, power using higher voltages via transformers, which would have been impossible otherwise.
When Edison's generator was coupled with Watt's steam engine, large-scale electricity generation became a practical proposition. James Watt, the Scottish inventor of the steam-condensing engine, was born in 1736. His improvements to steam engines were patented over a period of 15 years, starting in 1769 and his name was given to the electric unit of power, the Watt.
Andre Marie Ampere, a French mathematician who devoted himself to the study of electricity and magnetism, was the first to explain the electro-dynamic theory. A permanent memorial to Ampere is the use of his name for the unit of electric current.
George Simon Ohm, a German mathematician and physicist, was a college teacher in Cologne when in 1827 he published, "The galvanic Circuit Investigated Mathematically". His theories were coldly received by German scientists but his research was recognized in Britain and he was awarded the Copley Medal in 1841. His name has been given to the unit of electrical resistance.
Improvements and more apparatus were invented, which changed the way we live. Advances and innovations continue, microchips becoming more powerful and superconductors being utilized in a Maglev train in Japan. Unveiled in October 1995 and using superconducting magnets for levitation and power, the train is capable of reaching speeds of 340 miles per hour.
The future will bring more changes and create additional innovative ways to generate electricity and more devices to improve our lives. For fun, you can write a short story about what new device will be invented and how it will be used to the world’s benefit.
That's a lot of stuff to happen so we turn on the lights!!!
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