 Cuneus and Muschenbrock discovered the

Leyden jar.
 The first electrical capacitor – a storage
mechanism for an electrical charge. The first
ones were a glass jar filled with water – two
wires suspended in the water. Muschenbrock
got a shock out of the first jar that he almost
died. Later, the water was replaced with metal
foils wrapped so that there was insulation
between the layers of foil – the two wires are
attached to the ends of the sheets of foil
 Benjamin Franklin flew kites to demonstrate
that lightning is a form of static electricity. He
would run a wire to the kite and produce
sparks at the ground, or charge a Leyden jar.
This led Franklin to invents the lightning rod
and he also made several electrostatic
generators with rotating glass balls to
experiment with.
 These experiments led him to formulate the
single fluid (imponderable fluid) theory of
electricity. Franklin theorized just one
imponderable electrical fluid in the universe.
The difference in electrical charges was
explained by an excess (+) or defect (-) of the
single electrical fluid. This is where the
positive and negative symbols come from in
electrical science.
 Charles Augustus Coulomb (1736-1806) –
invented the Torsion balance. Coulomb
showed electrical attraction and repulsion
follow an inverse square law.
 Luigi Galvani (1737-1798) – investigated
electricity as the source of life. Galvani
believed living tissues contained electricity
and does a number of experiments:
connecting pieces of metal to a piece of wire-
zinc and copper worked really well-to create
what’s called a bimetallic arc. He held one
end of this bimetallic arc in his mouth and
touched the other end to the wet area in the s
eye and sees a brilliant flash of light.
 Count Alessandro Volta (1745-1827)-
announced the results of his experiments
investigation Galvani’s claims about the source
of electricity in the frog leg experiment. He
undertook to prove that he could produce
electricity without the frog. He took some
bimetallic arcs and dipped them in glasses of
brine: This was Volta’s Couronne des Tasses-
his first battery. The voltaic pile was an
improved configuration for a battery. With it he
showed that the bimetallic arcs were the source
of electricity.
 Hans Christian Oersted (1777-1851)-in
Denmark demonstrated a relationship
between electricity and magnetism by
showing that an electrical wire carrying a
current will deflect a magnetic needle.
 Andre Marie Ampere (1775-1836)-in France
gave a formalized understanding of the
relationships between electricity and
magnetism using algebra. Invented the
astatic needle, which made possible the
modern astatic galvanometer. He was the first
to show that two parallel conductors carrying
currents traveling in the same direction
attract each other and, if traveling in opposite
directions, repel each other.
 George Simon Ohm (1787-1854)-wanted to
measure the motive force of electrical
currents. He found that some conductors
worked better than others and quantified the
differences. He waited quite some time to
announce “Ohm’s Law” because his theory
was not accepted by his peers.
 Michael Faraday (1791-1867)-Faraday
postulated that an electrical current moving
through a wire creates “fields of force”
surrounding the wire. He believed that as
these “fields of force” when established and
collapsed could move a magnet. This led to a
number of experiments with electricity as a
motive (moving) force.
 Faraday built the first electric motor-a device
for transforming an electrical current into
rotary motion.
 Faraday made the first transformer-a device
for including an electrical current in a wire
not connected to an electrical source, also
known as Faraday’s Ring. It was powered by a
voltaic pile and used a manually operated key
to interrupt the current.
 Joseph Henry worked to improve
electromagnets and was the first to
superimposed coils of wire wrapped in an
iron core. He observed electromagnetic
induction a year before Faraday. He was
roundly criticized for not publishing his
discovery , losing his distinction for American
Science, but he did obtain priority for the
discovery of self induction. He later became
the first director of the Smithsonian
Institution.
 Heinrich F.E. Lenz, born in the old university
city of Tartur, Estonia, was a professor at the
University of St. Petersburg who carried out
many experiments. He is memorialized by the
law which bears his name – the
electrodynamic action of an induced current,
equally opposes the mechanical inducing
action – which was later recognized to be an
expression of the conservation of energy.
 Samuel Finley Broese Morse brought a
practical system of telegraphy to the for front
using electromagnets, and invented the code
name after him. Morse overcame both
electrical design flows and information flow
restrictions to enable the telegraph to
become a viable system of communictaions
 Gustav Robert Kirchoff announced the laws
which allow calculation of the currents,
voltages, and resistance of electrical networks
in 1845 when he was 21 years old. In further
studies, he demonstrated that current flows
through a conductor at the speed of light.
 James Clerk Maxwell wrote a mathematical
treatise formalizing the theory of fields: On
Faraday’s lines of force.
 Maxwell published electricity and magnetism,
demonstrating 4 partial different equations
that completely described electrical
phenomena. He also calculated that the
speed of propagation is approximately that of
the speed of light. He proposed therefore that
the phenomenon of light is therefore an
electromagnetic phenomenon. Maxwell
concluded that visible light is forms only a
small part of the entire spectrum of
electromagnetic radiation
 Herman Lud-wig Ferdinand von Helmholtz
was one of the 19th century greatest
scientists. In 1870, after analyzing all the
prevalent theories of electrodynamics, he lent
his support to Maxwell’s theory which was
little known on the European continent
 Sir William Crookes investigated electrical
discharges through highly evacuated
“Crookes tubes.” these studies laid the
foundation for Thomson’s in the late
research in the late 1890’s concerning
discharge-tube phenomena and the electron.
He also discovered the element Thallium and
made the radiometer
 Joseph Wilson Swan demonstrated his electric
lamp in Britain in February 1879. the filament
used carbon and had a partial vacuum and
preceded Edison’s demonstration by six
months
 Thomas Alva Edison began work on an electric
lamp and sought a material that could be
electrically heated to incandescence in a
vacuum. Edison conducted an extensive search
for a filament material to replace platinum
until, on October 21, 1879, he demonstrated a
lamp containing a carbonized cotton thread
that glowed for 40 hours
 Edison installed the first large central power
station in New York City. It provided enough
power for 7200 lamps.
 Oliver Heaviside worked intensively with
Maxwell’s equations to reduce the fatigue
incurred in solving them. In the process, he
created a form of vector analysis called
“Operational Calculus”. This increased the
speed of solution considerably. He also
proposed the ionized air layer named after
him that inductance can be added to
transmission lines to income transmission
distance, and that charges will increase in
mass when accelerated.
 Nikola Tesla devised the polyphase
alternating-current systems that form the
modern electrical power. Tesla’s other
inventions included Tesla Coil, a kind of
transformer and he also researched on high
voltage and wireless communication. In 1905,
he demonstrated a wireless remote control
boat.
 Charles Proteus Steinmetz discovered the
mathematics of hysteresis loss. He also
applied the mathematics of complex numbers
to AC analysis and thus put engineering
design of electrical systems on scientific
basis.
 Gugtielmo Marconi “the father of wireless”
formed his wireless telegraph company, and
in December 1901, Marconi formed his first
trans Atlantic radio transmission in Morse
code. When Marconi died, all the radio
transmitters were silent for two months.
 Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen discovered x-rays,.
 Sir Joseph John Thomson is universally
recognized as the British scientist who
discovered and identified the electron and he
theorized the plum pudding model of atomic
structure in which a quantity of negatively
charged electrons was embedded in a sphere
of positive electricity.
 Albert Einstein explained the photoelectric
effect, by which certain metals emit electrons
when illuminated by light with a given
frequency. Einstein’s theory formed the basis
for much of Quantum Mechanics
 Sir John Ambrose Fleming made the first
diode tube, the Fleming Valve. This device
has three leads, two for the heater/cathode
and the other for the plate
 William Bradford Shockley, John Bardeen, and
Walter Houser Brattain invented the transistor
for Bell labs, and all three shared the 1956
Nobel Physics prize for the invention
 Jack S. Kilby developed the integrated circuit.
 Robert Nortom Moyce also developed the
integrated circuitwith a more practical
approach to scaling the size of the circuit. He
and a co-worker developed the design of a
semiconducting chip. The sam idea incurred
independently that same year to Jack Kilby.
 Ted Hoff developed the first microprocessor
 Seymour Cray along with George Amadhi
defined the supercomupter industry
 The fC 1604 1976 The Cray 1 1985 The Cray
2
 The Cray 3, using GaAs technology 1996, The
Cray 4, completed but not marketed