Static Electricity: Module 1: History of Electricity
Static Electricity: Module 1: History of Electricity
Static Electricity: Module 1: History of Electricity
MODULE 1: HISTORY OF ELECTRICITY moistened the string, which could then con-duct
electricity. Sparks jumped from the key to the jar.
The study and development of electricity occurred over Although there was no lightning, there was
many centuries. enough electricity in the air for Franklin to prove
that electricity and lightning are the same thing.
It has its roots about 600 B.C.E. when a Greek
mathematician named Thales documented what In 1786, an Italian anatomy professor, Luigi Galvani,
eventually became known as static electricity. observed that a discharge of static electricity made a dead
He recorded that after rubbing amber, a yellowish, frog's leg twitch.
translucent mineral, with a piece of wool or fur
other light objects such as straw or feathers were Ensuing experimentation produced what was a
attracted to the amber. simple electron cell using the fluids of the leg as
For centuries this distinctive property was thought to be an electrolyte and the muscle as a circuit and
unique to amber. indicator.
He coined the term electricity, which is derived
Expanding on Galvani's findings, Alessandro Volta,
from the Latin term electricus, meaning to
another Italian, built the voltaic pile, an early type of electric
"produce from amber by friction." It has its roots
cell or battery.
in the Greek term elektor, which means, "beaming
sun." In 1820, H.C. Oersted, a Danish physicist, discovered that
Gradual improvements in the understanding of electricity a magnetic field surrounds a current-carrying wire, by
have led to the invention of motors, generators, telephones, observing that electrical currents affected the needle on a
radio and television, and computers. compass.
In 1660, a German experimenter named Otto von
Guericke built the first electric generating machine. Within two years Andre Marie Ampere, a French
It was constructed of a ball of sulfur, rotated by a mathematician, observed that a coil of wires acts like a
crank with one hand and rubbed with the other. magnet when electrical current is passed through it.
Other experimenters recognized that other
Shortly thereafter, D. F. Arago invented the electromagnet
substances, such as copper, silver, and gold, did
and Joseph Henry, an American, demonstrated an
not attract anything.
electromagnetic device that was capable of lifting over a
An Englishman, Stephen Gray, distinguished between
thousand pounds.
materials that were conductors and nonconductors in 1729.
About 1746, Ewald Georg von Kleist, a German inventor, Also as the result of the newly discovered electromagnet,
and Dutch physicist Pieter van Musschenbroek of the Michael Faraday, an English-man, developed a crude
University of Leyden, working independently, invented an electric motor in 1831, but a practical motor was not
electrical storage device called a Leyden jar, a glass jar developed until 1870.
coated inside and outside with tin foil.
Static electricity could be discharged by Both Faraday and Joseph Henry, working
simultaneously touching the inner and outer foil independently, invented the electric generator
layers. It demonstrated that electricity could be with which to power the motor.
stored for future use.
In 1831, American Samuel Morse conceived the idea of
In 1747, American inventor and statesman, Benjamin sending coded messages over wires using the
Franklin, suggested the existence of an electrical fluid and electromagnetic telegraph and a code of electrical impulses
surmised that an electric charge was made up of two types identified as dots and dashes that eventually became
of electric forces, an attractive force and a repulsive force. known as "Morse Code."
To identify these two forces, he gave the names
The first message sent by the electric telegraph
positive and negative, which are still in use today.
was "What hath God wrought," from the Supreme
Franklin conducted his famous kite experiment in
Court Room in the U.S. Capitol to the railway depot
1752. He flew a kite with a stiff wire pointing up- at Baltimore on May 24, 1844.
ward as a thunderstorm was about to break. He Morse's electric telegraph is recognized as the first
attached a metal key to the other end of the hemp
practical use of electricity and the first system of
string, and let it hang close to a Leyden jar. Rain electrical communication.
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Charles de Coulomb was the first person to measure the Tesla then developed plans for an alternating
amount of electricity and magnetism generated in a circuit. current induction motor, which become the
first step towards the successful utilization of
Georg Simon Ohm, a German college teacher, formulated alternating current.
a law showing the relationship between volts, amps, and
resistance. In 1885, George Westinghouse, head of the
Westinghouse Electric Company, bought the patent
Henry and Ohm demonstrated that in a long
rights to Tesla's alternating current system. In
electric line it was better to have relatively high
America, in 1886 the first alternating current power
voltage and low current.
station was placed in operation, but as no alternating
Additionally, J. P. Joule, G. R. Kirchhoff, and J. C. current motor was available, the output of this station
Maxwell also developed mathematical relationships and was limited to lighting.
rules concerning electrical circuiting.
In 1888, the alternating current motor was
In the late 1800s, electric lighting was viewed as an ideal introduced and ultimately became the most
use of electrical energy. Although arc lights were invented commonly used electric motor in buildings
and put to practical use for lighting streets by 1860, it was (e.g., for fans, air conditioners, and
not until 1879 that a practical incandescent lamp was refrigerators).
developed independently by Thomas Edison in America L. Caulard and J. D. Gibbs announced the
and Joseph Swan in England. first transformer in 1883. This allowed
alternating current power to be generated at
Edison was the first to patent the commercially low voltage, then stepped up to high voltage
feasible incandescent lamp so he is recognized as for efficient transmission, and then stepped
the inventor. The development of electric lighting down to an even lower voltage for safety
is covered in Chapter 20. reasons.
In 1882, the Edison Electric Light Company, later
known as General Electric, successfully (idk??)
demonstrated the use of artificial lighting by Large-scale electric power distribution began on
powering incandescent streetlights and lamps in August 26, 1895, when water flowing over Niagara
London and New York City.
Falls was diverted through a pair of high-speed
By the end of the 1880s, small electrical stations
turbines that were coupled to two 5000-horsepower
based on Edison's designs were in use a number generators that powered nearby manufacturing plants.
of U.S. cities. However, each power station was The following year a portion was transmitted 20 miles
able to power only a few city blocks.
to the city of Buffalo, where it was used for powering
Edison's designs still serve as the basis of how we to lighting and streetcars. This project involved
distribute electricity from power stations with the generators produced by Westinghouse and later by
exception that Edison's systems were direct current General Electric. The Niagara project clearly
systems. demonstrated that large-scale generation and
transmission of electricity was conceptually sound,
Direct current systems had the problematic technically feasible, and economically practical.
characteristic that current could not be economically Gradually, electrical power became commercialized in
transmitted over long distances. urban areas of the U.S. Gas lighting that had been used
in streetlights was re-placed by electric lights and
American Nikola Tesla of Croatian decent, one of
overhead wires eventually connected homes to a large-
Edison's former employees and a rival of Edison at the
scale power plant operated by privately owned electric
end of the 19th century, is the inventor of 3-phase
companies. By about 1930 most of the occupants of
power distribution, the alternating current motor,
large cities in the United States had electricity, yet only
and wireless transmission.
10% of the Americans who lived in rural areas had
He began experimenting on generators in electricity. At this time, private electric utilities
1883, and discovered the rotating magnetic determined that it was too expensive to run long
field. This phenomenon serves as the basic transmission lines to spaced farms. The Roosevelt
principle of the alternating current generator. administration believed that if private enterprise could
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not supply electric power to the people, then it was the they do not move between atoms within that material
duty of the government to do so. In 1935, the Rural very easily.
Electric Administration (REA) was created to bring
electricity to these rural areas. The REA helped to This relative mobility of electrons within a material is
establish hundreds of electric cooperatives that served known as electric conductivity. Conductivity is
determined by the types of atoms in a material (the
millions of rural households. Reliance on electricity has
number of protons in each atom's nucleus, determining
grown significantly over the past decade in all
its chemical identity) and how the atoms are linked
countries. For example, in 2002, the U.S. Department
together with one another. Materials with high electron
of Energy reported that total U.S. net generation of
electricity was 3811 billion kWh, with 50% produced mobility (many free electrons) are called conductors,
by coal-fired plants, 20% from nuclear plants, 18% while materials with low electron mobility (few or no
free electrons) are called insulators.
from gas plants, 7% from hydroelectric plants, 2%
from petroleum-fired plants, and 2% from renewable COMMON EXAMPLES OF CONDUCTORS AND
power sources (e.g., wind, solar electric, and so on). INSULATORS:
In less than a century, the developed world has CONDUCTORS INSULATORS
become extremely dependent on electricity and • silver • glass
problems have occurred because of this dependence. • copper • rubber
In 1965, 1977, and 2003, power failures blacked out • gold • oil
much of the northeastern United States and Canada. • aluminum • asphalt
In 1994 California enacted legislation intended to • iron • fiberglass
deregulate the electric power business in the state and • steel • porcelain
establish a competitive market. It was heralded as a • brass • ceramic
model for developed countries to follow. But, by • bronze • quartz
January 2001, flaws in the California approach had • mercury • (dry) cotton
become evident with the state's utilities driven to the • graphite • (dry) paper
brink of bankruptcy and Californians suffering • dirty water • (dry) wood
electricity shortages and blackouts. The effects of • concrete • plastic
shortages and blackouts experienced by the general • air
public have under-scored the significance of electricity • diamond
in everyday life. • pure water
MODULE 2: CONDUCTORS, INSULATORS, AND It must be understood that not all conductive materials
ELECTRON FLOW have the same level of conductivity, and not all
insulators are equally resistant to electron motion.
The electrons of different types of atoms have Electrical conductivity is analogous to the
different degrees of freedom to move around. With transparency of certain materials to light: materials
some types of materials, such as metals, the outermost that easily "conduct" light are called "transparent,"
electrons in the atoms are so loosely bound that they while those that don't are called "opaque." However,
chaotically move in the space between the atoms of not all transparent materials are equally conductive to
that material by nothing more than the influence of light. Window glass is better than most plastics, and
room-temperature heat energy. Because these certainly better than "clear” fiberglass. So it is with
virtually un-bound electrons are free to leave their electrical conductors, some being better than others.
respective atoms and float around in the space For instance, silver is the best conductor in the
between adjacent atoms, they are often called free "conductors" list, offering easier passage for electrons
electrons. than any other material cited. Dirty water and concrete
are also listed as conductors, but these materials are
In other types of materials such as glass, the atoms'
substantially less conductive than any metal. It should
electrons have very little freedom to move around.
also be understood that some materials experience
While external forces such as physical rubbing can
changes in their electrical properties under different
force some of these electrons to leave their respective
conditions. Glass, for instance, is a very good insulator
atoms and transfer to the atoms of another material,
at room temperature, but becomes a conductor when
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heated to a very high temperature. Gases such as air, With electricity, the overall effect from one end of a
normally insulating materials, also become conductive conductor to the other happens at the speed of light:
if heated to very high temperatures. Most metals a swift 186,000 miles per second!!! Each individual
become poorer conductors when heated, and better electron, though, travels through the conductor at a
conductors when cooled. Many conductive materials much slower pace.
become perfectly conductive (this is called
superconductivity) at extremely low temperatures. If we want electrons to flow in a certain direction to a
certain place, we must provide the proper path for
While the normal motion of "free" electrons in a them to move, just as a plumber must install piping to
conductor is random, with no particular direction or get water to flow where he or she wants it to flow. To
speed, electrons can be influenced to move in a facilitate this, wires are made of highly conductive
coordinated fashion through a conductive material. metals such as copper or aluminum in a wide variety
of sizes.
This uniform motion of electrons is what we
call electricity, or electric current. Remember that electrons can flow only when they
To be more precise, it could be called dynamic have the opportunity to move in the space between the
electricity in contrast to static electricity, atoms of a material. This means that there can be
which is an unmoving accumulation of electric electric current only where there exists a continuous
charge. path of conductive material providing a conduit for
electrons to travel through.
Just like water flowing through the emptiness of a pipe,
electrons are able to move within the empty space In the marble analogy, marbles can flow into the left-
within and between the atoms of a conductor. The hand side of the tube (and, consequently, through the
liquid-flow analogy is so fitting that the motion of tube) if and only if the tube is open on the right-hand
electrons through a conductor is often referred to as a side for marbles to flow out. If the tube is blocked on
"flow." the right-hand side, the marbles will just "pile up"
inside the tube, and marble "flow" will not occur. The
As each electron moves uniformly through a same holds true for electric current: the continuous
conductor, it pushes on the one ahead of it, flow of electrons requires there be an unbroken path
such that all the electrons move together as a to permit that flow. Let's look at a diagram to illustrate
group. how this works:
The starting and stopping of electron flow through the
length of a conductive path is virtually instantaneous
A thin, solid line (as shown above) is the conventional
from one end of a conductor to the other, even though
symbol for a continuous piece of wire. Since the
the motion of each electron may be very slow. An
wire is made of a conductive material, such as copper,
approximate analogy is that of a tube filled end-to-end
its constituent atoms have many free electrons which
with marbles:
can easily move through the wire. However, there will
never be a continuous or uniform flow of electrons
within this wire unless they have a place to come from
and a place to go. Let's add a hypothetical electron
"Source" and "Destination."
I = Current (A)
t = time (s)
VOLTAGE
V = IR
POWER
E = Pt
ELECTRECUTION