Timeline of Electricity

The Timeline of Electricity

-Benjamin Franklin - (1752)

> At the time of his popularity, Benjamin Franklin was seen as a man of science. His ideas helped to bring a new excitement towards scientific and new thought.

> Benjamin Franklin first proposed that "vitreous" and "resinous" electricity were not different types of "Electrical Fluid"(electricity), but the same electrical fluid under different pressures.

> He was the first to label them as Positive(+) and Negative(-) respectively.

>  On May 10, 1752,Thomas-Francois Dalibard of France conducted Franklin's experiment using a 40-foot-tall (12 m) iron rod instead of a kite, and he extracted electrical sparks from a cloud. On June 15 Franklin may possibly have conducted his well known kite experiment in Philadelphia.

 > In 1750, he published a proposal for an experiment to prove that lightning is electricity by flying a kite in a storm that appeared capable of becoming a lightning storm. It is still not quite known if Benjamin Franklin actually conducted the experiment or not. In his writings, Franklin indicates that he was aware of the dangers and offered alternative ways to demonstrate that lightning was electrical, as shown by his use of the concept of electrical ground.  

> Due to the relatively flat land and the fact that the homes where mostly made of wood, fires caused by lighting strikes where quite common. Benjamin Franklin's electrical experiments led to his invention of the lightning rod.

>. He noted that conductors with a sharp rather than a smooth point could discharge silently at a far greater distance compared to other designs. This ultimately led to the belief and understanding that lightning will strike taller objects more frequently than objects lower to the ground.

> He came to the conclusion that this rod could help protect buildings from lightning by attaching "upright rods of iron, made sharp as a needle and gilt to prevent rusting, and from the foot of those rods a wire down the outside of the building into the Ground." Franklin hypothesized "the pointed rods probably draw the Electrical Fire silently out of a cloud before it came high enough to strike, and thereby secure us from that most sudden and terrible mischief!"

> His hypothesis, though not entirely correct, led to the scientific understanding that "Electricity will always follow the path of least resistance". This is evident in nature, especially when observing lightning strikes.                              

This gif demonstrates the relationship between the positive
and negative charges in our atmosphere that attribute to a
lightning strike. 

- James Watt's Steam Engine (1764)




> In Scottish inventor James Watt and his innovations would change the world forever. It is said that Watt's improvements to the Steam Engine had directly brought civilization into an era of new ideas, trade, and manufacturing, this era was defined as the Industrial Revolution.


> Even though The first working steam engine had been patented in 1698 and by the time of Watt's birth, the Newcomen engines had been pumping water from mines all over the country. At the age of 28, James Watt got the chance to repair an old Newcomen engine, realizing how hopelessly inefficient it was, Watt began to work towards improving the design.



                                                              How Did The Newcomen Steam Engine Work?


> The Newcomen Engine and its process:

First, hot steam is pulled into the chamber.

Second, cold water is sprayed into the chamber. The temperature drops
 rapidly and  creates negative  pressure, which is used to
 effectively  pull the piston downward.

Finally, the cold water drains and the process repeats itself. The constant
 and repetitious push and pull from the steam engine creates kinetic
 energy,which can then be used to transfer the
 energy in motion to another device.  

                                 

          How Did James Watt's Steam Engine Work?

                                               

> James Watt had improved upon the design of the Newcomen Steam Engine by incorporating a separate condensing chamber that improved pressure force, prevented great losses of steam, and doubled the steam engines fuel efficiency.

>  Though the steam engine was not initially designed with electricity in mind, James Watt's Steam Engine will be a very important factor in the creation of modern electricity.
 (Hint: Electromagnetic Induction)


- Alessandro Volta's Battery - (1800)

> In the year 1800, Alessandro Volta experimented with the the chemical make up of electricity by stacking several pairs of alternating copper and zinc discs and separating them by cloth or cardboard soaked in brine (highly saturated salt water). It was discovered that through this set-up when the top and bottom contacts were connected by a wire, an electric current would flow through the voltaic pile and the connecting wire. The metal plates acted as electrodes to better influence conductivity and the brine was used for its high amount of electrolytes.

> By using both copper and zinc discs and spacers soaked in either salt water or other solutions, Volta was able to successfully store electric charge and use it later. His Voltaic Pile became the first known battery cell and directly attributed to the discoveries of electrolysis (Separating hydrogen and oxygen with the use of electricity) and the isolation and identification of  new elements such as: Sodium, Potassium, Magnesium, among many other elements.  

 

* Modern car batteries use lead and lead dioxide as the active materials on the battery's plates. Reacting with sulfuric acid in the electrolytes to form lead sulfate. The lead sulfate forms itself into a finely divided amorphous state, and easily reverts back to lead, lead dioxide, and sulfuric acid when the battery recharges.




-Micheal Faraday (1830's)

>   Micheal Faraday is most well know for proving that magnetism can create an electric current, specifically and appropriately named electromagnetism. 

>    In the late 1830's Micheal Faraday, fascinated with the Alessandro Volta's voltaic pile, founded the area of Electrochemistry also coining the terms "Electrode" and "Electrolyte" in efforts to define and explain the elements that caused Volta's Battery to store and conduct electricity.

> In 1821, following the work of  the Danish physicist and chemist Hans Christian Ørsted discovered the phenomenon of electromagnetism Faraday went on to uncover other significant relationships between magnets and electric current. Others who had heard of electromagnetism failed to create any sort of working electric motor, but Faraday has succeeded in designing two electric motors.

> One of the Faraday's electric motor is known as the Homo-polar Motor. This and his "Electric Magnetic Rotation Apparatus" helped to demonstrate magnetic rotation and its potential to be used to transform electrical energy into mechanical energy, thus creating the first electric motor.

As As it moves through a magnetic field, the conductor is pushed
parallel to the magnetic field created by the current.

> After discovering that magnetic rotation was caused by a moving electric current within the conductor, he the hypothesized that using magnets he could manipulate the flow of the current. Faraday's breakthrough came when he wrapped two insulated coils of wire around an iron ring, and found that upon passing a current through one coil a momentary current was induced in the other coil, this change in current became known as Electromagnetic Induction.

A liquid battery (right) through a small Coil A. When it's moved in
or out of the Coil B, its momentary change in current can be
measured as voltage on the galvanometer (Left) 

 

> The gif below demonstrates Faraday's Law of Electromagnetic Induction.

Here we can see that the movement of the electrons induced
by the magnet creates a current, but also take note that this is
 not a consistent current. 

               With Micheal Faraday's findings on Magnetic Induction, a new goal had become apparent.

                   If we can manipulate electricity and its current what else can we achieved, and how?