Electricity

WHO DISCOVERED ELECTRICITY?

Electricity is a form of energy and it occurs in nature, so it was not invented. As to who
discovered it, many misconceptions abound. Some give credit to Benjamin Franklin for
discovering electricity, but his experiments only helped establish the connection between
lightning and electricity, nothing more.
The truth about the discovery of electricity is a bit more complex than a man flying his kite. It
actually goes back more than two thousand years.
In about 600 BC, the Ancient Greeks discovered that rubbing fur on amber (fossilized tree resin)
caused an attraction between the two and so what the Greeks discovered was actually static
electricity. Additionally, researchers and archeologists in the 1930s discovered pots with sheets
of copper inside that they believe may have been ancient batteries meant to produce light at
ancient Roman sites. Similar devices were found in archeological digs near Baghdad meaning
ancient Persians may have also used an early form of batteries.

But by the 17th century, many electricity-related discoveries had been made, such as the
invention of an early electrostatic generator, the differentiation between positive and negative
currents, and the classification of materials as conductors or insulators.
In the year 1600, English physician William Gilbert used the Latin word electricus to describe
the force that certain substances exert when rubbed against each other. A few years later another
English scientist, Thomas Browne, wrote several books and he used the word electricity to
describe his investigations based on Gilberts work.

In 1752, Ben Franklin conducted his experiment with a kite, a key, and a storm. This simply
proved that lightning and tiny electric sparks were the same thing.
Italian physicist Alessandro Volta discovered that particular chemical reactions could produce
electricity, and in 1800 he constructed the voltaic pile (an early electric battery) that produced a
steady electric current, and so he was the first person to create a steady flow of electrical charge.
Volta also created the first transmission of electricity by linking positively-charged and
negatively-charged connectors and driving an electrical charge, or voltage, through them.
In 1831 electricity became viable for use in technology when Michael Faraday created the
electric dynamo (a crude power generator), which solved the problem of generating electric
current in an ongoing and practical way. Faradays rather crude invention used a magnet that was
moved inside a coil of copper wire, creating a tiny electric current that flowed through the wire.
This opened the door to American Thomas Edison and British scientist Joseph Swan who each
invented the incandescent filament light bulb in their respective countries in about 1878.
Previously, light bulbs had been invented by others, but the incandescent bulb was the first
practical bulb that would light for hours on end.

Swan and Edison later set up a joint company to produce the first practical filament lamp, and
Edison used his direct-current system (DC) to provide power to illuminate the first New York
electric street lamps in September 1882.
Later in the 1800s and early 1900s Serbian American engineer, inventor, and all around
electrical wizard Nikola Tesla became an important contributor to the birth of commercial
electricity. He worked with Edison and later had many revolutionary developments in
electromagnetism, and had competing patents with Marconi for the invention of radio. He is well
known for his work with alternating current (AC), AC motors, and the polyphase distribution
system.
Later, American inventor and industrialist George Westinghouse purchased and developed
Teslas patented motor for generating alternating current, and the work of Westinghouse, Tesla
and others gradually convinced American society that the future of electricity lay with AC rather
than DC.
Others who worked to bring the use of electricity to where it is today include Scottish inventor
James Watt, Andre Ampere, a French mathematician, and German mathematician and physicist
George Ohm.

History of Electricity
Although electricity had been known to be produced as a result of the chemical reactions
that take place in an electrolytic cell since Alessandro Volta developed the voltaic pile in 1800,
its production by this means was, and still is, expensive. In 1831, Michael Faraday devised a
machine that generated electricity from rotary motion, but it took almost 50 years for the
technology to reach a commercially viable stage. In 1878, in the US, Thomas Edison developed
and sold a commercially viable replacement for gas lighting and heating using locally generated
and distributed direct current electricity.

The world's first public electricity supply was provided in late 1881, when the streets of the
Surrey town of Godalming in the UK were lit with electric light. This system was powered from
a water wheel on the River Wey, which drove a Siemens alternator that supplied a number of arc
lamps within the town. This supply scheme also provided electricity to a number of shops and
premises to light 34 incandescent Swan light bulbs.
Additionally, Robert Hammond, in December 1881, demonstrated the new electric light in the
Sussex town of Brighton in the UK for a trial period. The ensuing success of this installation
enabled Hammond to put this venture on both a commercial and legal footing, as a number of
shop owners wanted to use the new electric light. Thus the Hammond Electricity Supply Co. was
launched. Whilst the Godalming and Holborn Viaduct Schemes closed after a few years the
Brighton Scheme continued on, and supply was in 1887 made available for 24 hours per day.
In early 1882, Edison opened the worlds first steam-powered electricity generating station at
Holborn Viaduct in London, where he had entered into an agreement with the City Corporation
for a period of three months to provide street lighting. In time he had supplied a number of local
consumers with electric light. The method of supply was direct current (DC).
It was later on in the year in September 1882 that Edison opened the Pearl Street Power Station
in New York City and again it was a DC supply. It was for this reason that the generation was
close to or on the consumer's premises as Edison had no means of voltage conversion. The
voltage chosen for any electrical system is a compromise. Increasing the voltage reduces the
current and therefore reduces the required wire thickness. Unfortunately it also increases the
danger from direct contact and increases the required insulation thickness. Furthermore, some
load types were difficult or impossible to make work with higher voltages. The overall effect was
that Edison's system required power stations to be within a mile of the consumers. While this
could work in city centres, it would be unable to economically supply suburbs with power.
The mid to late 1880's saw the introduction of alternating current (AC) systems in Europe and
the U.S. AC power had an advantage in that transformers, installed at power stations, could be
used to raise the voltage from the generators, and transformers at local substations could reduce
voltage to supply loads. Increasing the voltage reduced the current in the transmission and
distribution lines and hence the size of conductors and distribution losses. This made it more
economical to distribute power over long distances. Generators (such as hydroelectric sites)
could be located far from the loads. AC and DC competed for a while, during a period called the
War of Currents. The DC system was able to claim slightly greater safety, but this difference was
not great enough to overwhelm the enormous technical and economic advantages of alternating
current which eventually won out.

Electric Power Industry

The electric power industry is the generation, transmission, distribution and sale of
electric power to the general public. The electrical industry started with introduction of electric
lighting in 1882. Throughout the 1880s and 1890s, growing economic and safety concerns lead
to the regulation of the industry. Once an expensive novelty limited to the most densely

populated areas, reliable and economical electric power has become a requirement for normal
operation of all elements of developed economies.
By the middle of the 20th century, electric power was seen as a "natural monopoly", only
efficient if a restricted number of organizations participated in the market; in some areas,
vertically-integrated companies provides all stages from generation to retail, and only
governmental supervision regulated the rate of return and cost structure.
Since the 1990s, many regions have opened up the generation and distribution of electric power
to provide a more competitive electricity market. While such markets can be abusively
manipulated with consequent adverse price and reliability impact to consumers, generally
competitive production of electrical energy leads to worthwhile improvements in efficiency.
However, transmission and distribution are harder problems since returns on investment are not
as easy to find.

What is Electricity
Electricity figures everywhere in our lives. Electricity lights up our homes, cooks our
food, powers our computers, television sets, and other electronic devices. Electricity from
batteries keeps our cars running and makes our flashlights shine in the dark.
Here's something you can do to see the importance of electricity. Take a walk through your
school, house or apartment and write down all the different appliances, devices and machines
that use electricity. You'll be amazed at how many things we use each and every day that depend
on electricity.
But what is electricity? Where does it come from? How does it work? Before we understand all
that, we need to know a little bit about atoms and their structure.
All matter is made up of atoms, and atoms are made up of smaller particles. The three main
particles making up an atom are the proton, the neutron and the electron.
Electrons spin around the center, or nucleus, of atoms, in the same way the moon spins around
the earth. The nucleus is made up of neutrons and protons.
Electrons contain a negative charge, protons a positive charge. Neutrons are neutral they have
neither a positive nor a negative charge.
There are many different kinds of atoms, one for each type of element. An atom is a single part
that makes up an element. There are 118 different known elements that make up every thing!
Some elements like oxygen we breathe are essential to life.
Each atom has a specific number of electrons, protons and neutrons. But no matter how many
particles an atom has, the number of electrons usually needs to be the same as the number of
protons. If the numbers are the same, the atom is called balanced, and it is very stable.

So, if an atom had six protons, it should also have six electrons. The element with six protons
and six electrons is called carbon. Carbon is found in abundance in the sun, stars, comets,
atmospheres of most planets, and the food we eat. Coal is made of carbon; so are diamonds.
Some kinds of atoms have loosely attached electrons. An atom that loses electrons has more
protons than electrons and is positively charged. An atom that gains electrons has more negative
particles and is negatively charge. A "charged" atom is called an "ion."
Electrons can be made to move from one atom to another. When those electrons move between
the atoms, a current of electricity is created. The electrons move from one atom to another in a
"flow." One electron is attached and another electron is lost.
This chain is similar to the fire fighter's bucket brigades in olden times. But instead of passing
one bucket from the start of the line of people to the other end, each person would have a bucket
of water to pour from one bucket to another. The result was a lot of spilled water and not enough
water to douse the fire. It is a situation that's very similar to electricity passing along a wire and a
circuit. The charge is passed from atom to atom when electricity is "passed."
Scientists and engineers have learned many ways to move electrons off of atoms. That means
that when you add up the electrons and protons, you would wind up with one more proton
instead of being balanced.
Since all atoms want to be balanced, the atom that has been "unbalanced" will look for a free
electron to fill the place of the missing one. We say that this unbalanced atom has a "positive
charge" (+) because it has too many protons.
Since it got kicked off, the free electron moves around waiting for an unbalanced atom to give it
a home. The free electron charge is negative, and has no proton to balance it out, so we say that it
has a "negative charge" (-).
So what do positive and negative charges have to do with electricity?
Scientists and engineers have found several ways to create large numbers of positive atoms and
free negative electrons. Since positive atoms want negative electrons so they can be balanced,
they have a strong attraction for the electrons. The electrons also want to be part of a balanced
atom, so they have a strong attraction to the positive atoms. So, the positive attracts the negative
to balance out.
The more positive atoms or negative electrons you have, the stronger the attraction for the other.
Since we have both positive and negative charged groups attracted to each other, we call the total
attraction "charge."
Energy also can be measured in joules. Joules sounds exactly like the word jewels, as in
diamonds and emeralds. A thousand joules is equal to a British thermal unit.

When electrons move among the atoms of matter, a current of electricity is created. This is what
happens in a piece of wire. The electrons are passed from atom to atom, creating an electrical
current from one end to other, just like in the picture.
Electricity is conducted through some things better than others do. Its resistance measures how
well something conducts electricity. Some things hold their electrons very tightly. Electrons do
not move through them very well. These things are called insulators. Rubber, plastic, cloth, glass
and dry air are good insulators and have very high resistance.
Other materials have some loosely held electrons, which move through them very easily. These
are called conductors. Most metals like copper, aluminum or steel are good conductors.

Electrical Current
Electric current is defined as the rate at which charge flows through a surface (the cross
section of a wire, for example). Despite referring to many different things, the word current is
often used by itself instead of the longer, more formal "electric current". The adjective
"electrical" is implied by the context of the situation being described. The phrase "current
through a toaster" surely refers to the flow of electrons through the heating element and not the
flow of slices of bread through the slots.

Electrical Circuit

An electric circuit is a path in which electrons from a voltage or current source flow.
Electric current flow in a closed path is called an electric circuit.
The point where those electrons enter an electrical circuit is called the "source" of electrons. The
point where the electrons leave an electrical circuit is called the "return" or "earth ground". The
exit point is called the "return" because electrons always end up at the source when they
complete the path of an electrical circuit.
The part of an electrical circuit that is between the electrons' starting point and the point where
they return to the source is called an electrical circuit's "load". The load of an electrical circuit
may be as simple as those that power electrical appliances like refrigerators, televisions, or lamps
or more complicated, such as the load on the output of a hydroelectric power generating station.

Circuits use two forms of electrical power: alternating current (AC) and direct current (DC). AC
often powers large appliances and motors and is generated by power stations. DC powers battery
operated vehicles and other machines and electronics. Converters can change AC to DC and vice
versa. High-voltage direct current transmission uses very big converters.

Symbols

Research
In
TLE 9
4th Quarter

Armin Larinay
9 - Amity