The Discovery of Electricity

Electricity in very simple terms is based on the interaction of particles that have positive or negative charges. Particles with opposite charges attract.
An electric current is the flow of particles called electrons through a conductor such as metal wire. Electrons are negative charges that move towards a positive charge.

Two forms of electric current were eventually discovered to distribute electricity.

AC – Alternating current. The electrical current changes direction in regular cycles. It is efficiently transmitted over long distances at high voltage and then with the use of transformers changed to lower voltage for business or residential use.

DC – Direct current. The electrical current moves in one direction and remains constant. It is a direct electrical low voltage current transmitted efficiently only over short distances.

The following is a list of some of the key people whose work played a significant role in the discovery of electricity.

1791 – Italy - Luigi Galvani published a paper regarding the presence of a continuous flow of electricity, at the time referring to it as ‘animal electricity’

1800 – Italy - Italian Alessandro Guiseppe Antonio Anastasio Volta’s experiments lead to the first version of the battery

1807 – London - Sir Humphrey Davy’s discovery of the ‘electric arc’ during experiments with a 2,000-cell battery, was the beginning stage towards incandescent lighting

1820 – Copenhagen - Hans Christian Orstead experiments during a class at the University of Copenhagen led to the discovery of ‘electromagnetism’

1827 – Albany New York – Joseph Henry – discovered the lifting power of ordinary magnets could be intensified with electricity thus developing ‘electromagnets’. Penfield Iron Works; NY used Henry’s electromagnets to separate iron ore from rock. This was one of the first uses of electric technology in industry.

1830’s – London - Michael Faraday’s experiments lead to the discovery of the first electric generator

1831 – Albany, New York – Joseph Henry experiments with an electromagnet, wire and a closed circuit revealed an electric current could cause a mechanical action at some distant point. This was the beginning of the electromagnetic telegraph.

1837 – London – William Cooke and Charles Wheatstone obtained a patent for a galvanic and electromagnetic telegraph.

1839 – London - The Cooke and Wheatstone telegraph ran along the Great Western Railway for 18 miles from London to Slough.

1839 – French physicist – Edmund Bequerel discovered the photoelectric effect (certain materials when exposed to light produced a small electric current)

1843 – Washington – Samuel F. B. Morse who discovered the dots and dash communication system laid a 41-mile long telegraph line in glass insulators from Washington to Baltimore

1844 – Washington – Samuel F. B. Morse sends his first coded message.

By 1855 – telegraphs transmitted printed words.

By 1861 – the telegraph lines of Western Union spanned from coast to coast.

By 1866 – a telegraph cable was laid across the Atlantic Ocean.

1876 – Ontario – Alexander Graham Bell working with electrician named Thomas Watson developed a device to transmit human voice. The first telephone took shape.

1877 – New Jersey – Thomas Alva Edison failed experiment with the telephone results in the phonograph. The first recorded sound.

1879 – New Jersey – Edison and his team create the first electrically powered glass lamp. Edison further went on to design the system and circuitry to power the electric light.

1880 – Europe – Nikola Telsa, Galileo Ferraris, and Michael von Dolivo–Dobrowolski had all developed motors using ‘alternating current’

1882 – New York – Edison establishes his first commercial power station and provided ‘direct current’ to approx. 85 local consumers

1886 – US – Approx. 60 local Edison companies all supplying ‘direct current’

1887 – New York – Nikola Telsa (now in the US) applied for patents for his two-phase and three-phase AC motors

1888-1896 – Pittsburgh – George Westinghouse bought the patents and hired Telsa to work with his engineers to develop a long-range productive AC system for commercial and domestic use.

1891 – Colorado – The first commercial AC power transmission system in America was installed in a mine

1893 – Chicago – World’s Fair – Westinghouse demonstrated that use of AC generators, transformers, and rotary converters changed AC to DC. He showed how a single AC generating plant could deliver both AC and DC power

1893 – Niagara Falls, US – J.P. Morgan and William K. Vanderbilt formed the Cataract Construction Company and with a two-phase AC system started to generate several thousand-horse powers of electricity which later developed into a more powerful system.

1897 – Britain – J. J. Thomson identifies the ‘electron’. It is the particle of energy that flows through wires and creates the electric current.

1905 – Albert Einstein – defined the essence of light and the photoelectric effect (the basis for photovoltaic technology)

1954 – United States – Bell Laboratories developed the first photovoltaic cell (solar cell) and module

1960’s – United States - Space industry (NASA) began to experiment with photovoltaic technology (solar power) as a power source for spacecrafts

1970’s – Research by various companies began into using photovoltaic technology (solar power) as a source of electricity for everyday applications

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Discovery Results in The Invention of Electrical Products