Scientists
Ancient Time:
17th Century:
18th Century:
19th Century:
History of electrical engineering was dated back 2000 years ago when the Greeks discovered rubbing amber with fur would attract some light objects like fur or feather; and the two rubbed amber ends would repel each other. They did not understand the reason why besides thinking that it was the side of a soul or a god (Elert).
In the 17th century, the English scientist William Gilbert (1544 – 1603) redid the Greek experiment and found out about magnetism and electrical attraction. He knew that the attractive and repulsive forces between rubbed rods were very similar to attractive and repulsive forces of the two different polarities of a magnet. He was also the first person suggest that the Earth was the gigantic magnet (Flint). The 17th century marked the beginning of the electrical engineering, a field with many mysteries as well as promising fame.
In the beginning of the 19th century, the Italian scientist Alessandro Volta (1745-827), in his attempt to prove another scientist wrong, discovered the first battery. Volta’s experiment had a metal strip with two different metal silver and zinc at two ends sitting in cups of dilute acid. When he put fingers in each of the cups, he got an electric shock. This worked because two ends of the metal strips acted as positive and negative polarity; and the acid helped conduct the current. Also he knew if connecting more metal strips, the shock would be greater, meaning higher voltage and better current (“Alessandro Volta”).
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In 1820, at Copenhagen University lecture, Hans​ Oersted (1777 – 1851)'s discovery was one of the rarest discoveries that actually happened in his lecture while he was trying to show his students the phenomenon of electricity. He had the magnetic needle which was placing below the wire with current inside changed position to be perpendicular to the wire. Also when he changed the direction of the current or the position pole of the needle, the needle would swing in the opposite direction. With repeated experiment, he concluded that there was a connection between the electricity and magnetism. His experiment began to gain fame; and many electromagnetic experiments became popular around Europe (Gregory).
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Also in 1820, The French physicist Andre Marie Ampere (1775-1836), was successful in taking magnetism to another level. Ampere was one of the rare scientists who did not have formal education but mostly he learned what he loved, especially math. He extended Oersted's experimental work that two parallel wires carrying current repel or attract each other depending on the direction of the current within them. ("André Marie Ampère"). With his highly mathematical experience, he demonstrated completely the law of forces between wires carrying current that the forces exerted on the wire is directly proportional to its length ("Ampère's Experiments"). Electricity became an exact science for the first time; and the SI electric current is named after him, Ampere (Darling).
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In 1825, using the data of his experiments with circuits, the components and the galvanometer, Georg Simon Ohm(1789 –1854) was able to define the fundamental relationship between voltage, current, and resistance or the components. The equation I = V/R is known as "Ohm’s Law". “It states that the amount of steady current through a material is directly proportional to the voltage across the material divided by the electrical resistance of the material” (Bellis). With this equation, “the true beginning of electrical circuit analysis” was started (Bellis). Many scientists now can invent and test their devices with more accuracy and efficiency.
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In 1821, Michael Faraday (1791-1867) redid Oersted's work with magnets and found the first electromagnetic rotation. He had a magnet placed in the liquid mercury vertically and under a suspended copper wire. An electric current passed through the wires and the mercury making the wires move in a circular orbit. It moved because the magnetic field of the wires created by the current and the magnetic field of the magnet interacts making the wires to circle around ("Faraday's Rotating Wire Experiment"). His experiment was a foundation of modern electromagnetic technology. Again in 1832, Faraday discovered electromagnetic induction and the generation of current due to the change in magnetic field. Faraday’s experiment started by making a coil by wrapping a paper with wire then connected to the galvanometer, a device to measure current. When he moved the magnet back and forth inside the cylinder coil, the galvanometer‘s needle moved indicating there was a current inside the coil. It was the first electric motor (“Faraday's Magnetic Field Induction Experiment”).
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One of the most famous things Thomas Edison (1847-1931) invented was the incandescent light bulb. Initially he tried to use a platinum wire as the filament component due to its high melting point ("Electric Lamp"). The current would go through the wire filament, heat it up until it glows and gives out light. However there was a big problem with keeping the filament from overheating and burning out. Edison designed the complex regulating device to fix this but it could not work out due to the irregular self-shutdown of his design ("Inventing Edison's Lamp"). Through many more experiments, he realized there was an enormous amount of hot trapped gas that damaged the component inside the bulb. The vacuumed light bulb would have been an answer, but the price for the platinum was still expensive for regular people. After trying many different materials, carbon filament yielded the best result. On October 1879, Thomas Edison and his staff succeeded in using carbonized filament in his vacuumed bulb, the first light bulb ("Inventing Edison's Lamp"). The 19th century was truly a glorious period of time for electrical engineering, driven by curiosity as well as fame, more and more scientists and inventors dedicated their lives to the field, making it more popular and specially lighting up the future.
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Last but not least, we cannot talk about Thomas Edison without mentioning his former employee and a biggest rival, Nikola Tesla (1856 – 1943). Realizing the limitation of direct current (DC) system, Nikola Tesla came up with basic principals of the poly-phase (AC) induction motor generator in 1883, and created a model that can generate 400W by 1888 (Tesla Polyphase Induction Motors). The problem with DC current system that it couldn't be stepped (increased) up to high voltage for transportation along power lines, while Tesla's AC power allowed for distributing power over long distance due to its ease of changing voltages using motors and transformers, changing the current by changing the magnetic field (Newman).
After the 19th century, there were more scientists, engineers who used the foundation of Electrical Engineer from previously scientists to build more inventions, for example: Graham Bell with telephone, Martin Cooper with cellphone, Charles Babbage, Alan Turing with computer, and so on. After 19th century, the world was never be the same with the invention of the light bulb and the AC. Electricity became more popular with common consumers, and everyday life was brighter and faster ever since.
In the 18th century, German clerk Ewald Georg von Kleist(1700 – 1748) and Dutch professor Van Musschenbroek ( 1692 –1761) at Leiden University invented the Leiden jar that can store the electricity, the first capacitor in 1746. “The jar was made out of glass partially filled with water” and with brass wires going through its wooden stopper in the top to outside. The static current was made by friction; it was going through the brass wire, going inside and being stored a little there. The glass acted as the insulator in between the two opposite charged at two ends of the brass wire. Inside the jar, the charge was stored and insulated instead of being lost rapidly through the vast surrounding air ("The Leiden Jar").
Also in 1752, Ben Franklin (1706– 1790) with his kite and key experiment concluded that lightning was the form of the electricity, one step closer to the discovering secret of nature. To conclude this, he let his kite pass through the thunderstorm as he observed the loose ends of the thread “stand erect” by itself. He also received an electric shock when touching the key attaching to the kite (Donway, Roger).