A Brief History

of Electricity
Lecture L0.0

Some Electrical Pioneers
Ancient Greeks
William Gilbert
Pieter van Musschenbroek
Benjamin Franklin
Charles Coulomb
Alessandro Volta
Hans Christian Oersted

Some Electrical Pioneers (cont.)
Andre-Marie Ampere
Michael Faraday
Joseph Henry
James Clerk Maxwell
Heinrich Hertz
J. J. Thomson
Albert Einstein

Some Electrical Inventors
Samuel F. B. Morse (Telegraph)
Guglielmo Marconi (Wireless telegraph)
Thomas Edison (Electric lights ..)
Nikola Tesla (A.C. generators, motors)
John Bardeen and Walter Brattain
Transistor
Jack Kilby and Robert Noyce
Integrated Circuit
Ancient Greeks Static Electricity
Rub amber with wool.
Amber becomes negatively charged by
attracting negative charges (electrons)
from the wool.
The wool becomes positively charged.

The amber can then pick up a feather.
How?
William Gilbert (1544-1603)

Coined the word electricity from the
Greek word elektron meaning amber.
English scientist and physician to
Queen Elizabeth.
In 1600 published "De Magnete,
Magneticisque Corporibus, et de Magno
Magnete Tellure" ("On the Magnet,
Magnetic Bodies, and the Great Magnet
of the Earth").

Showed that frictional (static) electricity occurs in
many common materials.
Pieter van Musschenbroek (1692 1761)
Dutch physicist from Leiden, Netherlands,
who discovered capacitance and invented the
Leyden jar.
Ref: http://chem.ch.huji.ac.il/~eugeniik/history/musschenbroek.htm

Leyden jar (also called condenser)
Leyden Jars
http://www.alaska.net/~natnkell/leyden.htm
http://home.earthlink.net/~lenyr/stat-gen.htm
Refs:
700 pF, 175 KV
Q = C x V
= 700 x 10
-12
x 175 x 10
3

= 1.225 x 10
-4
coulombs
No. of electrons =
1.225 x 10
-4
coulombs / 1.6 x 10
-19
coul/elec
= 7.66 x 10
14
electrons
Benjamin Franklin (1706 1790)
Conducted many experiments on
static electricity from 1746 1751
(including his lightning experiment)
and became famous throughout
Europe by describing these
experiments in a series of letters to
Peter Collinson.
Charles Coulomb (1736 1806)
Using a torsion balance Coulomb in 1784
experimentally determined the law
according to which charged bodies attract
or repel each other.
Coulombs Law

1 2
1 12
2
0 12
1
4
q q
r tc
= F e
7 2 9
0
1
10 9.0 10
4
c
tc

= =
Unit: Newton meter / coulomb
2
volt meter / coulomb
Alessandro Volta (1745 1827)
Interpreted Galvanis experiment
with decapitated frogs as
involving the generation of
current flowing through the
moist flesh of the frogs leg
between two dissimilar metals.
Argued with Galvani that the
frog was unnecessary.
In 1799 he developed the first battery (voltaic pile)
that generated current from the chemical reaction
of zinc and copper discs separated from each other
with cardboard discs soaked in a salt solution.
Hans Christian Oersted (1777 1851)
Ref: http://chem.ch.huji.ac.il/~eugeniik/history/oersted.htm

In 1820 he showed that a current
produces a magnetic field.
X
Andr-Marie Ampre (1775 1836)
French mathematics professor who only
a week after learning of Oersteds
discoveries in Sept. 1820 demonstrated
that parallel wires carrying currents
attract and repel each other.
attract
repel
A moving charge of 1 coulomb
per second is a current of
1 ampere (amp).
Michael Faraday (1701 1867)
Self-taught English chemist and physicist
discovered electromagnetic induction in
1831 by which a changing magnetic field
induces an electric field.
A capacitance of 1 coulomb per volt
is called a farad (F)
Joseph Henry (1797 1878)
American scientist, Princeton University
professor, and first Secretary of the
Smithsonian Institution.
Discovered self-
induction
Built the largest
electromagnets of
his day
Unit of inductance, L, is the Henry
James Clerk Maxwell (1831 1879)
Born in Edinburgh, Scotland;
Taught at Kings College in London
(1860-1865) and was the first
Cavendish Professor of Physics at
Cambridge (1871-1879).
Provided a mathematical description of
Faradays lines of force.
Developed Maxwells Equations which
describe the interaction of electric and
magnetic fields.
V = D
0 V = B
t
c
V =
c
B
E
t
c
V = +
c
D
H J
Predicted that light was a
form of electromagnetic
waves
c = D E = B H
From a long view of the history of mankind - seen
from, say, ten thousand years from now - there can be
little doubt that the most significant event of the 19th
century will be judged as Maxwell's discovery of the
laws of electrodynamics. The American Civil War will
pale into provincial insignificance in comparison with
this important scientific event of the same decade.
-- Richard P. Feynman
The Feynman Lectures on Physics
Vol. II, page 1-11
What do Maxwells Eqs. Predict?
V = D
Corresponds to Coulombs Law
c = D E
c = electrical permittivity
2
4 Area of sphere r t =
E
q = F E
What do Maxwells Eqs. Predict?
B = magnetic flux density
(magnetic induction)
= magnetic permeability
B
( ) q v = F B
0 V = B
= B H
Magnetic field lines
must be closed loops
Force on moving charge q
Lorentz force
What do Maxwells Eqs. Predict?
t
c
V =
c
B
E
Corresponds to Faradays law of
electromagnetic induction
A changing magnetic flux B density induces a curl of E
The rate of change of magnetic flux through an area A
induces an electromotive force (voltage) equal to the line
integral of E around the area A.
Motors and generators are based on this principle
What do Maxwells Eqs. Predict?
corresponds to Amperes Law
0
c = D E
= permittivity of free space
B
t
c
V = +
c
D
H J
0
V = B J
0
= B H
X
0
c
0

= permeability of free space

0 0 0
t
c
c
V = +
c
E
B J
J
Extra term added
by Maxwell
What do Maxwells Eqs. Predict?
0 0
t
c
c
V =
c
E
B
In free space (J = 0)
t
c
V =
c
B
E
2
2
0 0
2
t
c
c
V =
c
E
E
These two equations can be combined to form the wave equation
Solutions to this equation are waves that propagate with
a velocity c given by
8
0 0
1
3 10 m/ sec c
c
= =
(the speed of light!)
James Clerk Maxwell (1831 1879)
By the time that Maxwell died in 1879
at the age of 48 most scientists were
not convinced of his prediction of
electromagnetic waves. They had
never been observed. No one knew
how to generate them or to detect
them.
Predicted that light was a
form of electromagnetic
waves
They would be discovered by
Heinrich Hertz in 1887 and this
would eventually lead to radio,
television, and cell phones.
Heinrich Hertz (1857 1894)
The frequency of electrical signals is measured in hertz (cycles/second)
Generates and detects electromagnetic waves
in 1887
Ref: http://www.sparkmuseum.com/HERTZ.HTM
Sir Joseph John Thomson (1856 1940)
Discovers the electron in 1898
J. J. Thomson
Cathode Tube
Cavendish Labs
Electric Field -- corpuscle

Albert Einstein (1879 1955)
In 1905 publishes his Special Theory of
Relativity based on two postulates:
1. Absolute uniform motion cannot be
detected by any means.
2. Light is propagated in empty space with a
velocity c which is independent of the
motion of the source.
This theory predicts seemingly unusual effects such as the
measured length of moving bodies and time intervals being
dependent on the frame of reference being used for the
measurement.
It is well known that if we attempt to apply Maxwell's electro-dynamics, as
conceived at the present time, to moving bodies, we are led to asymmetry which
does not agree with observed phenomena. Let us think of the mutual action between
a magnet and a conductor. The observed phenomena in this case depend only on the
relative motion of the conductor and the magnet, while according to the usual
conception, a distinction must be made between the cases where the one or the other
of the bodies is in motion. If, for example, the magnet moves and the conductor is at
rest, then an electric field of certain energy value is produced in the neighborhood of
the magnet, which excites a current in those parts of the field where a conductor
exists. But if the magnet be at rest and the conductor be set in motion, no electric
field is produced in the neighborhood of the magnet, but an electromotive force
which corresponds to no energy in itself is produced in the conductor; this causes an
electric current of the same magnitude and in the same direction as the electric force,
it being of course assumed that the relative motion in both of these cases is the
same.
Opening paragraph of On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies,
by Albert Einstein, Annalen der Physik 17 (1905), p. 891.
Some Electrical Inventors
Samuel F. B. Morse (Telegraph)
Guglielmo Marconi (Wireless telegraph)
Thomas Edison (Electric lights ..)
Nikola Tesla (A.C. generators, motors)
John Bardeen and Walter Brattain
Transistor
Jack Kilby and Robert Noyce
Integrated Circuit
The Telegraph
Samuel F. B. Morse
(1791 1872)

Wireless Telegraph
Guglielmo Marconi
Marconi Spark Transmitter
Built at the Hall Street Chelmsford Factory
September, 1897
Electric Lights
Thomas Edison
1847 - 1931
Replica of original lightbulb
Patent #223,898
Invented and developed
complete DC electric
generation and
distribution system for
city lighting systems
Carried on a major
competition with George
Westinghouse who
developed an AC
generation and distribution
system
Alternating Current (AC) Systems
Nikola Tesla
1856 - 1943
Over 700 patents
Rotating magnetic field principle
Polyphase alternating-current system
Inducton motor
AC power transmission
Telephone repeater
Tesla coil transfromer
Radio
Fluorescent lights
The First
Point-Contact
Transistor
1947
Bell Labs Museum
The First
Junction Transistor
1951
Bell Labs

Texas Instruments First IC -- 1958
Jack Kilby
Robert Noyce
Fairchild
Intel
Moores Law
Moore's Law
(As predicted by Gordon E. Moore in 1965)
1
100
10000
1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975
Year
T
r
a
n
s
i
s
t
o
r
s
Moores Law
Moore's Law
(Doubling every 2 years)
0.001
0.01
0.1
1
10
100
1000
10000
1974 1976 1978 1980 1982 1984 1986 1988 1990 1992 1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010
Year
T
r
a
n
s
i
s
t
o
r
s

(
i
n

m
i
l
l
i
o
n
s
)

8080
286
486
Pentium
Pentium II
Pentium 4
64K
1M
4M
16M
Memory
Microprocessor