APPENDIX-I

A BRIEF HISTORY OF ELECTRICITY

Below is a timeline of major milestones in the history of electricity.

900 BC:

Magnus, a Greek shepherd, walks across a field of black stones which pull the iron nails out of his sandals and the iron tip from his shepherd's staff (authenticity not guaranteed).This region becomes known as Magnesia. Thales of Miletus, a Greek philosopher, records that when he polishes amber (elektron in Greek) with a piece of wool or fur, a static electric charge is created, attracting straw or feathers. Petrus Peregrinus de Maricourt (France) found that when a magnetized needle was placed on a spherical magnet it would align itself longitudinally. Tracing the lines, he showed that they intersected in two points on opposite sides of the sphere. He called these, \magnetic poles". He also showed that the orientation of a magnetic needle near the sphere depended on its proximity to a pole. William Gilbert, (1540-1603) Physician to QEI, time of Shakespeare, the Spanish Armada. Published De Magnete in 1600. He confirmed Peregrinus's result and speculated that the Earth is giant magnet. Showed that friction caused the attractive phenomenon to appear in many materials. He called the property electric" from the Latin word, electrum, Niccolo Cabeo discovers that electricity can be repulsive as well as attractive. German physicist and engineer Otto Von Guericke, (1602-1688) of Magdeburg, Germany, builds the first machine to generate an electric spark. His generator consists of a sulfur globe mounted on an iron shaft. The globe could be turned with one hand and rubbed with the other to produce static electricity. Robert Boyle discovered that electric force could be transmitted through a vacuum and observed attraction and repulsion. Stephen Gray, (1666-1736). the son of a dyer from Canterbury, England. shows that electricity doesn't have to be made in place by rubbing but can also be transferred from place to place with conducting wires. He also shows that the charge on electrified objects resides on their surfaces. Charles Dufay, (1698-1739), the gardener to the King of France, discovers that electricity comes in two kinds vitreous and resinous because they were elicited by rubbing glass or rosin, respectively. These are now known as positive and negative (static) charges. Dufay found that similar electricities repel each other and that dissimilar ones attract. Petrus van Musschenbroek (1692-1761), a physicist and mathematician in the Netherlands, invents the electrical condenser and nearly kills his friend Cunaeus. It was found that by charging a liquid in a bottle and holding the bottle in the hand, one could obtain powerful discharges. The device is later called the Leyden jar the first device that could store electricity for future use. English physician William Watson, (1715-1787). improves on the invention, coating the inside and outside of a glass bottle with tinfoil to improve its capacity to store a charge. By the middle of the 18th c., electrical experiments had become very fashionable. It was common to electrify people by insulating them and connecting them to an electrostatic machine. These demonstrations were performed in social gatherings and in elegant salons,

600 BC :

1269 :

1600 :

1620 : 1663: 1675

1729 :

1733 :

1745:

1747 :

Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790), the tenth son of the seventeen children of a Boston soapmaker/ candlemaker. In 1746 Franklin began to investigate electrical phenomena. His experiments and machines were described in personal letters to England and were relayed to the Royal Society which awarded him the Copley Medal, England's greatest scientific award and elected him a fellow. Franklin invented many terms still used in discussing electricity (positive, negative, battery, conductor, etc.). He proposes the principle of conservation of charge. Believing lightning is a flow of electricity taking place in nature, Benjamin Franklin tests his theory, fastening an iron spike to a silk kite and holding the end of the kite string by an iron key during a thunderstorm. Lightning flashes, and a tiny spark Franklin's Electrostatic Generator jumps from the key to Franklins wrist. Franklin invented the lightning rod. Sir William Watson (1715-1787) uses an electrostatic machine and a vacuum pump to make the first glow discharge. His glass vessel is three feet long and three inches in diameter: the first fluorescent light bulb

1748 :

1752: 1759 : 1764 : 1766 :

Johann Sulzer puts lead and silver together in his mouth, performing the first recorded tongue test" of a battery. Francis Ulrich Theodore Aepinus discovers charging by induction. Joseph Louis Lagrange (1736-1813) discovers the divergence theorem in connection with the study of gravitation. It later becomes known as Gauss's law
Joseph Priestly (1733-1804), who emigrated to America from England, was the chemist who discovered oxygen. On a suggestion of Franklin's, shows that hollow charged vessels contain no charge on the inside and based on his knowledge that hollow shells of mass have no gravity inside correctly deduces that the electric force law is inverse square. Priestley's book was probably the very first written about electrical phenomena which attempted to be complete. The Swiss Scientist Horace de Saussure built the world's first solar collector Scotsman James Watt invents the steam condensing engine, which proves crucial to large-scale generation of electricity. The principles of the steam engine developed by Watt are used to turn the generators that produce electricity. Priestley's Electrostatic Generator Henry Cavendish (1731-1810) a wealthy and eccentric Englishman invents the idea of capacitance and resistance (the latter without any way of measuring current other than the level of personal discomfort). But being indifferent to fame he is content to wait for his work to be published by Lord Kelvin in 1879.

1767 : 1769 :

1775 :

1780 :

Luis Galvani (1737-1798). Anatomist and biologist from Bologna. causes dead frog legs to twitch with static electricity, then also discovers that the same twitching can be caused by contact with dissimilar metals. With this set of experiments, Galvani initiated electrophysiology and the study of electric currents. He was unable to disentangle the two problems and his obsession with finding the animal spirits" led many other scientists to not take his work seriously. Yet the term galvanism" and its many derivatives came to mean electric current. Charles Augustin Coulomb (1736-1806) studied engineering at the military school in France. He invented the torsion balance and used this to demonstrate the inverse square law. He published the results in 1788. The fact is now known as Coulomb's Law. The unit of charge is now called the coulomb.

1785 :

1790s :

Alessandro Giuseppe Antonio Anastasio Volta (1745-1827) was a professor at the University of Pisa. After his friend, Galvani, discovered that contact of two different metals with the muscle of a frog resulted in an electric current, Volta began experimenting in 1794 with metals alone and found that animal tissue was not needed to produce a current. His invention and demonstration of the electric battery in 1800 provided the first continuous electric power source. This voltaic pile consists of thirty metal disks separated by layers of (dampened) cloth. During the first part of the nineteenth century large voltaic piles were constructed to provide sources of continuous current. Volta demonstrated the actions of piles such as the one shown to Napoleon who was reportedly quite impressed. Bonaparte, incidentally, was very partial to scientists; in 1813 he allowed free passage to Davy and Faraday to visit Ampre in Paris despite the hostilities between England and France.

A Voltaic Pile

1808 :

English chemist Sir Humphrey Davy (1778-1829), discovers the electric arca luminous flame of electricity that seems to leap across space without benefit of a conductor. In reality, the gases in the air serve as the conductor. Hans Christian Oersted (1777-1851), of Denmark holds a magnetic compass near a current-carrying wire, discovering electromagnetism. The unit of magnetic intensity is now called an oerstead.

1819 :

rsted's Compass

1820 :

Andre Marie Ampere (1775-1836), one week after hearing of Oersted's discovery, shows that parallel currents attract each other and that opposite currents attract. Ampere developed a complete quantitative theory of Oersted's observation and succeeded in laying the foundation of a mathematical theory of electromagnetism. In 1823 Ampere invented the coaxial cable First electric motor developed by Michael Faraday Thomas Johann Seebeck discovers the thermoelectric effect by showing that a current will flow in a circuit made of dissimilar metals if there is a temperature difference between the metals. Georg Simon Ohm (1787-1854) establishes the result now known as Ohm's law. V = IR seems a pretty simple law to name after someone, but the importance of Ohm's work does not lie in this simple proportionality. What Ohm did was develop the idea of voltage as the driver of electric current. He reasoned by making an analogy between Fourier's theory of heat flow and electricity. In his scheme temperature and voltage correspond as do heat flow and electrical current. It was not until some years later that Ohm's electroscopic force (V in his law) and Poisson's electrostatic potential were shown to be identical.

1821 : 1822:

1826 :

Ohm's Apparatus

1831 :

English physicist Michael Faraday (1791-1876) introduced the concept of a field and thereby greatly simplified the mathematics that describe the phenomena. As a young man, Faraday was employed as a bookbinder in London. He succeeds in building the first electric motor. He discovers when a magnet is moved within a coil of copper wire, a small electric current flows through the wire. In 1834 - Faraday discovers self inductance.

American Joseph Henry (1797-1878) also discovers this principle the same year. Faraday's Experiments

1834 :

Jean Charles Peltier discovers the flip side of Seebeck's thermoelectric effect. He finds that current driven in a circuit made of dissimilar metals causes the different metals to be at different temperatures.

1834 :

Heinrich F.E. Lenz (1804-1865), born in the old university city of Tartu, Estonia (then in Russia), was a professor at the University of St. Petersburg, formulates his rule for determining the direction of Faraday's induced currents.

1837 1839 : 1841 1845-9 :

First industrial electric motors. Edmund Becquerel, a French Physicist, observed the photovoltaic effect J. P. Joule's law of electrical heating published. Gustav Robert Kirchhoff (1824-1887), German physicist,announced the laws which allow calculation of the currents, voltages, and resistances of electrical networks in 1845 when he was only twenty-one. In further studies he demonstrated that current flows through a conductor at the speed of light. His other work established the technique of spectrum analysis which he applied to determine the composition of the Sun.

1854-1858 :

William Thomson (Lord Kelvin) (1824-1907), son of a mathematics professor at the University of Glasgow, entered the University at age ten, published his first scientific paper when he was sixteen, and was named professor of physics at age twenty-two. He remained at Glasgow for fifty-three years. Thomson is most famous for his work in thermodynamics, but his theoretical analysis of cable transmission and his inventions made the transatlantic cable possible

1859 :

Moses Farmer lights his house in Salem, Massachusetts, by electric lamps that contain a glowing platinum wire. The current is supplied by batteries. Generators with electromagnets in the field are first constructed. Electric arcs light the streets in Paris, London, New York, Cleveland and other cities. James Clerk Maxwell (1831-1879) came from a middle class Edinburgh family, wrote equations that described the electromagnetic field, and predicted the existence of electromagnetic waves traveling with the speed of light.

1866 : Mid-1870s: 1873 :

1876 : 1879 :

Alexander Graham Bell patents the telephone, which transmits speech over electric wires. Thomas Alva Edison (1847-1931) and English physicist Joseph Swan both apply for patents for carbonfilament incandescent lamps. Litigation between the two men is resolved by formation of a joint company in 1883. Edison did not invent the electric light. (He did invent the phonograph.) However, Edison did improve the design with respect to the filament, the vacuum, and the base, making the bulb a practical alternative to gas or arc lights, and he invented a power system for electric lighting . First commercial power station opens in San Edison's First Commercial Light Bulb Francisco, uses Charles Brush generator and arc lights The earliest battery-powered cars are built in Europe. Edison establishes a central generating station at Pearl Street in lower Manhatten, serving 85 customers in a one-square-mile area. Edward Weston begins manufacturing electric meters.

1879 :

1880 : 1882 :

1883 : 1884 :

The first water powered plant for generating electricity is built in Appleton, Wisconsin. Transformer invented. Edison introduces "three-wire" transmission system. Steam turbine invented. AIEE (American Institute of Electrical Engineers) started to develop standard specifications for electrical industry Frank Sprague demonstrates the first practical electric motor for use in locomotives. In 1887, he inaugurates a small electric railway in St. Joseph, Missouri, and builds the Union Passenger Railway in Richmond, Virginiathe first large electric railway system ever attempted. William Stanley develops transformer and Alternating Current electric system. Frank Sprague builds first American transformer and demonstrates use of step up and step down transformers for long distance AC power transmission in Great Barrington, Massachusetts.

1884 :

1886 :

1886 :

Schuyler Wheeler makes the first electric fan, using an electric motor to turn a propeller placed on the end of a shaft. Nikola Tesla (1856-1943) came to the U.S. from Austria-Hungary was working with Edison, introduces the alternating current generator, allowing electricity to be distributed longer distances than the two miles possible with direct current generators. Everyone but Edison agrees AC is superior to DC. Even Edisons own companyEdison Electric Company,

1888 :

now called General Electriceventually switches to AC. All electric motors today run on principles set out by Tesla.

1889

Oregon City Oregon, Willamette Falls station, first AC hydroelectric plant. Single phase power transmitted 13 miles to Portland at 4,000 volts, stepped down to 50 volts for distribution. Swiss Engineer Thury developed HVDC transmission system.

1891 : 1892 : 1893 :

60 cycle AC system introduced in U.S. General Electric Company formed by the merger of Thomson-Houston and Edison General Electric. George Westinghouse (1846-1914) demonstrates "universal system" of generation and distribution at Chicago exposition. Austin, Texas; First dam designed specifically for hydroelectric power built across Colorado River is completed.

1893 : 1895 :

International Electrical Congress held in Chigaco in regards to units, standards & nomenclature. The era of largescale power distribution begins when water flowing over Niagra Falls is diverted through a pair of high-speed turbines. American inventor and industrialist George Westinghouse wins the contract to construct the generators after purchasing Teslas patent for generating alternating current. Italian engineer Guglielmo Marconi (1874-1937) waves in the to produce the first practical system. harnesses radio electric signaling

1896 :

Marconi's Transmitter

1897 : 1898 : 1900 : 1903 :

Electron discovered by J. J. Thomson. The first dry cell flashlight is made in New York City. Highest voltage transmission line 60 Kilovolt. First successful gas turbine (France). Worlds first all turbine station (Chicago).

Shawinigan Water & Power installs worlds largest generator (5,000 Watts) and worlds largest and highest voltage line136 Km and 50 Kilovolts (to Montreal). 1904 :
John Ambrose Fleming invented the diode rectifier vacuum tube. In Italy, Geothermal energy was used for electricity production. American Lee De Forest invents a vacuum tube that amplifies radio signals, making the development of radio and television communication possible. Ernest R. Rutherford measured the distribution of an electric charge within the atom. Edison connects the phonograph and George Eastmans camera to make talking pictures. Working television models are created. deployment of the worlds first 735-kV line Transistor invented. First 345 Kilovolt transmission line. First nuclear power station ordered.

1907 :

1910 : 1914 : 1920s : 1944 : 1947 : 1953 :

1954 : 1999 :

First high voltage direct current (HVDC) line (20 megawatts/1900 Kilovolts, 96 Km). Electricity marketed on Internet.