Inventor Contribution/s

Petrus Cunaeus - invented the first capacitor, the Leyden Jar ( this
device is a jar partially filled with water able to
absorb charges )
- The Leyden jar was the first means of storing an
electric charge which then could be discharged at
the experimenter's will
Charles Proteus Steinmetz - established the Law of Hysteresis ( Steinmetz s
Law)
hysteresis - refers to the delay in the
change of the magnetic field that occurs
each time the alternating current that
creates this field reverses, resulting in loss
of power
- Invented a system for distribution of electricity
by alternating currents
- one of Steinmetz achievements was his study and
theory regarding electrical transients
electrical transients - momentary bursts of
energy that are induced upon power, data,
or communication lines. They are
characterized by extremely high voltages
that can drive tremendous amounts of
current into an electrical circuit for a few
millionths, up to a few thousandths of a
second
- His investigation of the lightning phenomena
resulted in his theory of travelling waves and
paved the way for him to develop devices that can
protect high-power transmission lines from
lightning bolts such as lightning arrester
- He designed and created several devices and
machines such as: a generator that produced a
discharge of 10,000 amperes and 120,000 volts; an
AC generator, a three-phase electrical circuit; a
metallic electrode arc lamp, an electric car; and
other 200 patents over the course of his lifetime
Heinrich Rudolf Hertz - discovered radio waves while experimenting on
sparks
- was able to prove that radio waves and light
waves are both part of what we call today the
electromagnetic spectrum. Hertzs discovery of
radio waves became the foundation of our modern
radio communications technology
Radio waves- are a type of
electromagnetic radiation with
wavelengths in the electromagnetic

Pieter van Musschenbroek
Alessandro Volta
William Bradford Shockley Jr.
Heinrich Geissler
spectrum longer than infrared light. It has
frequencies from 3 THz to as low as 3 kHz,
and corresponding wavelengths ranging
from 100 micrometers (0.0039 in) to 100
kilometers (62 mi)
Oscillators-is an electronic circuit that
produces a periodic, oscillating electronic
signal, often a sine wave or a square wave.
It converts direct current (DC) from a
power supply to an alternating current
(AC) signal.
Electromagnetic spectrum- is the
distribution of electromagnetic radiation
according to energy (or equivalently, by
virtue of the relations in the previous
section, according to frequency or
wavelength).
Photoelectric Effect-refers to the emission,
or ejection, of electrons from the surface
of, generally, a metal in response to
incident light.
- invented the first capacitor, the Leyden Jar in
1746. His capacitor is made up of a glass jar,
partially filled with water which contained a brass
wire projecting out from its cork stopper. The
source of the electric current is a friction electrical
machine
- invented the atmometer ( measures the rate of
evaporation on wet surfaces )
- invented the tribometer (an instrument used in
measuring friction in sliding )
- invented the first electrical battery, the voltaic
pile, that could continuously provide an electrical
current to a circuit
- Shockley together with Bardeen and Bratain
invented the Point-contact transistor which
was the first type of solid-state electronic
transistor ever constructed
- invented the Geissler tube (an early gas
discharge tube used to demonstrate the principles
of electrical glow discharge, similar to
modern neon lighting)
- It consists of a sealed, partially evacuated glass
cylinder of various shapes with a
metal electrode at each end, containing rarefied
gasses such as neon, argon, or air; mercury vapor
or other conductive fluids; or
 ionizableminerals or metals, such as sodium.
Hermann von Helmholtz - worked on the law of conservation of energy
Law of conservation of energy - amount of
energy remains constant and energy is
neither created nor destroyed. Energy can
be converted from one form to another
(potential energy can be converted to
kinetic energy) but the total energy within
the domain remains fixed.
Seymour Cray - invented the first supercomputer
- father of supercomputing
- member of ERA ( Engineering Research
Association)
- CDC 6600 (1964) fastest computer at his time
Gustav Robert Kirchhoff - developed the two circuit laws: Kirchhoffs
Current Law (KCL) and Kirchhoffs Voltage Law
(KVL)
- KCL - Kirchhoff's first law, Kirchhoff's point
rule, Kirchhoff's junction rule
- the Conservation of Charge
- total current or charge entering a
junction or node is exactly equal to the charge
leaving the node as it has no other place to go
except to leave, as no charge is lost within the
node
- KVL - Kirchhoff's second law, Kirchhoff's loop
rule, and Kirchhoff's second rule
- the Conservation of Energy
- in any closed loop network, the total
voltage around the loop is equal to the sum of
all the voltage drops within the same loop

Circuit a circuit is a closed loop

conducting path in which an electrical
current flows.
Path a single line of connecting
elements or sources.
Node a node is a junction, connection or
terminal within a circuit were two or more
circuit elements are connected or joined
together giving a connection point
between two or more branches. A node is
indicated by a dot.
Branch a branch is a single or group of
components such as resistors or a source
which are connected between two nodes.
Loop a loop is a simple closed path in a
circuit in which no circuit element or node
 is encountered more than once.
Mesh a mesh is a single open loop that
does not have a closed path. There are no
components inside a mesh.
John Ambrose Fleming - the father of modern electronics
- invented the diode which is also called
thermionic valve and Fleming valve
plate anode
filament cathode
- A diode regulates the flow of electric current and
acts like a one-way valve turning current on and
off. When a battery is connected to the metal
cathode, it heats up and electrons boil off from
its surface. This flow of electrons completes the
electric circuit. It is extremely difficult for electrons
to flow the other way, so the diode acts as a one-
way valve

- Flemings left hand rule applicable to electric

motors

- Flemings right hand rule applicable to electrical

generators
Thomas Alva Edison - invented the phonograph - could record the
spoken voice and play it back
The first recorded message was of Thomas
Edison speaking Mary had a little lamb
- invented the light bulb in 1879
- motion picture
- magnetic iron ore separator
Guglielmo Marconi - invented the wireless radio which utilized the
monopole antenna ( reduces the frequency of
radiation)
first conversation over the radio was are
 you ready
Luigi Aloisio Galvani - discovered bioelectricity which is now called
electrophysiology
Animal electricity- a heretofore neglected
innate, vital force which activates nerve
and muscle when spanned by metal
probes
John Vincent Atanasoff - father of the computer
- Laplaciometer small analog calculator which
was used for analyzing the geometry of surfaces
- invented the Atanasoff Berry Computer (ABC)
which was a specific use computer, designed to
solve systems of linear algebraic equations, and
was capable of solving systems with up to 29
unknowns
Oliver Heaviside - formulated the simplified Maxwells equation
Maxwell's formulation of
electromagnetism consisted of 20
equations in 20 variables.
Heaviside simplified Maxwells original
equations to four, using only terms for
fields that we employ to this day.
- Solved one of the greatest problems affecting
telegraph systems
Telephone systems were unable to send
voice signals over any distance because of
the low and high frequencies traveled at
different speeds rendering the audio
garbled over any distance.
By adding small inductors along the length
of the cable, the problem could be solved.
Inductor - also called a coil or reactor, is a
passive two-terminal electrical component
which resists changes in electric current
passing through it.
- concept of reactance - Reactance or resistance is
the opposition of a circuit element to a change in
current or voltage, due to that element's
inductance or capacitance
- ionised layer - above the Earth reflects
medium-frequency radio waves, and
because of this reflection, radio waves can
be propagated beyond the horizon.
It is now known as the ionosphere, the
regions in the ionosphere were for many
years known as the Heaviside layers or the
Heaviside-Kennelly Layers. Kennelly also
 proposed the idea of the layers.
Benjamin Franklin - discovered the phenomena of electricity by
means of his kite experiment
- invented the lightning rod - a rod attached to the
top of a building, connected to the ground through
a wire. The electric charge from lightning strikes
the rod and the charge is conducted harmlessly
into the ground. This protects houses from burning
down and people from electrocution. Franklin
thought the lightning rod was his most important
invention
Nikola Tesla - discovered radio but was not given credit
because of the lack of funds
- invented the tesla coil following with the Tesla
Tower but was not finished
Ernest Rutherford - discovered the proton in 1911
- conducted the gold foil experiment
- developed the planetary model of the atom
Henry Joseph Round - headed Marconi's research program into
thermionic tubes, and developed a three-element
(triode) amplifying tube at roughly the same time
as Lee De Forest was developing the Audion in the
US
John Joseph Thomson - discovered the electron (formerly known as
corpuscles) in 1897
- formulated the plum pudding model of the atom
- In 1912, he discovered isotopes
isotopes this is an atom with the same
atomic number but with different
properties ( ex. Carbon 12 from carbon)
Lee De Forest - invented the triode also called the audion, a
vacuum tube device that could amplify weak
signals into a larger one
- It is a three-element vacuum tube (it has an
anode, a cathode and a control grid) that was
sensitive wireless receptor
- De Forest Phonofilm Process - synchronized
sound directly to the film. It recorded electrical
waveforms from microphone then it is translated
back into sound waves when the movie was
projected
Joseph Henry - invented one of the first machines that used
electromagnetism for motion, the Henry
Oscillating Beam Motor
- established impedance matching to build the
strongest electromagnet, able to carry 750 pounds
of iron
Robert A. Millikan - measured the charge of electron using his Oil
Drop Experiment
charge of electron: -1.6022x10-19C
Jack Kilby - invented the first integrated circuit called
microelectronic circuit or chip together with
Robert Noyce in September 12, 1958
integrated circuit - is a microscopic array
of electronic circuits and components that
are diffused or implanted onto the surface
of a single crystal, or chip, of
semiconducting material such as silicon
- invented the first integrated circuit based
electronic calculator, later called the pocketronic
Robert Noyce - co-inventor of the integrated circuit, a system of
interconnected transistors on a single silicon
microchip
- co-founder of Intel (Integrated Electronics)
Michael Faraday - invented the homopolar motor - A wire
extending into a pool of mercury with a magnet
placed inside would rotate around the magnet if
charged with electricity by a chemical battery
- invented the first electrical generator (Faraday
disk) - consisted of a copper disk rotating between
the poles of a magnet
- formulated the first law of electrolysis - Michael
Faraday reported that the quantity of elements
separated by passing an electrical current through
a molten or dissolved salt was proportional to the
quantity of current passed through the circuit
- Faraday effect - The plane of polarization of
linearly polarized light propagated through a
material medium can be rotated by the application
of an external magnetic field aligned in the
propagation direction. He wrote in his notebook, "I
have at last succeeded in illuminating a magnetic
curve or line of force and in magnetizing a ray of
light". This established that magnetic force and
light were related
- discovered the phenomenon that he named
Diamagnetism - a very weak form of magnetism
that is only exhibited in the presence of an
external magnetic field. This phenomenon can be
used for levitation.
Wilhelm Rontgen - 1895, produced and detected electromagnetic
radiation in a wavelength range known as X-rays or
Rntgen rays
James Watt - invented the Watt steam engine able to convert
 mechanical energy into electrical energy
-one of the earliest rotative (wheel-turning) steam
engines to be built and is the oldest in existence
Heinrich Lenz - Lenzs law - An electric current induced by a
changing magnetic field will flow such that it will
create its own magnetic field that opposes the
magnetic field that created it
- These opposing fields occupying the same space
at the same time result in a pair of forces. These
forces are felt when you turn a generator and
generate electricity. The more current you
generate, the greater the force opposing you
Albert Einstein - Einstein applied the quantum theory to light in
order to explain the phenomenon known as the
photoelectric effect
- formulated the theory of relativity - E = mc2
where: c was the constant speed of light
Andre Marie Ampere - Ampre showed that two parallel wires carrying
electric currents repel or attract each other,
depending on whether the currents flow in the
same or opposite directions, respectively
- formulated the Amperes Law - states that the
mutual action of two lengths of current-carrying
wire is proportional to their lengths and to the
intensities of their currents
James Prescott Joule - formulated the firs law of thermodynamics -
states that heat is a form of energy, and
thermodynamic processes are therefore subject to
the principle of conservation of energy. This means
that heat energy cannot be created or destroyed.
It can, however, be transferred from one location
to another and converted to and from other forms
of energy
- formulated Joules law - The amount of heat per
second that develops in a wire carrying a current is
proportional to the electrical resistance of the wire
and the square of the current. He determined that
the heat evolved per second is equivalent to the
electric power absorbed, or the power loss
-A quantitative form of Joules law is that the heat
evolved per second, or the electric power loss, P,
equals the current I squared times the resistance
R, or P = I2R. The power P has units of watts, or
joules per second, when the current is expressed
in amperes and the resistance in ohms
Wilhelm Weber - invented the electromagnetic telegraph device
used for communication where an operator at one
 station causes words or signs to be made at
another by means of a current of electricity,
generated by a battery and transmitted over an
intervening wire
- formulated the theory of electrodynamics, an
alternative to Maxwell electrodynamics
Wb unit of magnetic flux
- invented the electrodynamometer- an
instrument used for measuring the electric power.
The basic principle was laid out in an 1848 paper
by Wilhelm Weber (1804-1891): when the same
current passes through two concentric coils placed
at right angles to each other, the resulting torque
depends on the square of the current
John Bardeen - invented the transistor with his two colleagues
William Shockley and Walter Brattain
- formulated the theory of superconductivity
transistor - replaced the larger and bulkier
vacuum tube and provided the technology
for miniaturizing the electronic switches
and other components needed in the
construction of computers
Regulates current or voltage flow and acts
as a switch or gate for electronic signals
Samuel Finley Morse - invented the single wire telegraphy system
- invented the Morse code - an alphabet or code in
which letters are represented by combinations of
long and short signals of light or sound
- came to idea to use electromagnetism as a
means of communication
Henry Cavendish - formulated the theory of electricity
Like his theory of heat, this theory was
mathematical in form and was based on
precise quantitative experiments. In 1771
he published an early version of his theory,
based on an expansive electrical fluid that
exerted pressure. He demonstrated that if
the intensity of electric force was
inversely proportional to distance, then
the electric fluid in excess of that needed
for electrical neutrality would lie on the
outer surface of an electrified sphere

James Clerk Maxwell - color photography - Maxwell suggested a method

of creating color photographs by using red, green,
and blue (RGB) filters. In his experiments he
photographed an colored object three times, each
 time with a different RGB colored filter in front of
the camera lens. The three images were developed
and then projected onto a screen by three
different projectors, each equipped with the same
color filter used to take the respective image.
When brought into register (the correct
alignment), the three images formed a full color
image
- formulated Maxwells equation - describe the
properties of electric and magnetic fields and their
interactions with matter. Maxwell used his
equations to show that electric and magnetic fields
are two complementary components of
electromagnetic fields. He also showed that
electric and magnetic fields travel through empty
space, in the form of waves, at a constant velocity
of 3.0 108 m/s (which predicted the speed of
light c) and also proposed that light was a form of
electromagnetic radiation
Carl Friedrich Gauss - Gauss and Weber did extensive research into the
nature of electricity and magnetism, creating a
simple telegraph machine and discovering
Kirchhoff's laws, a set of rules that apply to
electrical circuits. The two men also developed the
magnometer(magnetometer) and the
electrodynamometer, instruments that measured
electric current and voltage
magnetometer - An instrument used for
two general purposes:
to measure the magnetization of a
magnetic material
to measure the strength and the direction
of the magnetic field at a point in space
- formulated Gauss law - a simple way to describe
the relationship between force fields or other
phenomena that follow the inverse square law
Gauss - The unit of magnetic flux intensity
is the gauss, and is defined as one Maxwell
per square centimeter
Karl Ferdinand Braun - invented the cathode ray tube in 1897
Braun was able to produce a fluorescent
image by using magnetic forces in a
vacuum tube to deflect cathode rays
Georg Simon Ohm - formulated Ohms law - He discovered that the
current in a circuit is directly proportional to the
electric pressure and inversely to the resistance of
the conductors
 Sir William Crookes - invented the radiometer in 1873 (also called the
light mill) - Provides a quantitative measurement
of electromagnetic radiation intensity
- invented the Crookes tube in 1875 - Electrons
are emitted from the cathode and are accelerated
toward the anode when a high voltage is applied
between the two electrodes
- invented the spinthariscope - this was the first
radiation detector
- discovered thallium
Hans Christian Orsted - discovered the phenomena of electromagnetism
through subsequent experiments though he did
not formulate any mathematical explanation
- isolated aluminium and was able to producse
little amounts of it
Charles Augustin de Coloumb - formulated the Coloumbs law - States that the
force between two electrical charges is
proportional to the product of the charges and
inversely proportional to the square of the
distance between them
- invented the torsion balance
- developed the inverse square law of attraction
and repulsion of unlike and like magnetic poles
Walter Houser Brattain - developed the transistor together with Shockley
and Bardeen
Joseph Wilson Swan - developed electric light bulb
It was formed by packing pieces of paper
or card with charcoal powder in a crucible
and subjecting the whole to a high
temperature. The carbonized paper thus
obtained he mounted in the form of a fine
strip in a vacuous glass vessel and
connected It with a battery of Grove's
cells, which though not strong enough to
raise it to complete incandescence, were
sufficient to make it red-hot