How Electricity Go It’s Start in America
Some of the earliest documented experiments with electricity show that they were done by Benjamin Franklin. He worked extensively and sold many of his possession to finance the experiments. He realized that lightening was a natural source of electricity when he conducted the well known experiment that included a kite being flown during a thunderstorm. The kite was flown with a key attached to the end of the wet string, which attracted the lightening.
The invention of an electric cell by Alessandro Volta of Italy in 1800 made it much easier for scientists everywhere to study electricity and its applications. The electric cells were connected together, creating a battery.
Nearly everyone knows that Alexander Graham bell invented the telephone. He was intrigued with different methods for transmitting sound since he was a teacher of deaf students. He began experimenting, using electricity with the experiment which lead to his success with the telephone.
A Connecticut mill worker named Thomas Doolittle created a method to make the very first hard-drawn copper wire that was durable enough to be used as telegraph wire. Michael Faraday of England was the first to understand that electricity could be created by passing a magnet through copper wire. This same application is used all over America today in power plants to create electricity to send out to customers everywhere. The electric generator and motor are both built using this principle. Generators take mechanical energy and turn it into electricity. Motors take electrical energy and turn it into mechanical energy.
While Thomas Edison experimented with electricity he was able to invent the electrical light bulb in addition to many other gadgets. His biggest challenge when creating the light bulb was to find the right material to use for the filament. He settled on carbon soaked cotton thread. The carbon was used to prevent the cotton thread from burning. The thread glowed as the electricity traveled through it. As soon as the popularity of the light bulb caught on he turned his attention to the development of power plants that would be run the light bulbs. The first power plant that he built began operating in 1882 and served 85 New York city customers.
A big turning point came in 1895. Edison’s power plant used direct current (DC), and could only transport the power for a short distance, which turned out to be approximately one square mile around his power plant. The development of alternating current (AC) allowed George Westinghouse to transport power over 200 miles from his new Niagara Falls power plant.
Electricity was rather slow to catch on in America. Many people were excited by the new inventions, but some were afraid of the electrical current and hesitated to have it installed in their houses. Some people were unable to afford the price of the service. Electricity was blamed for causing the end of simple living. Many people felt that electric lights were less romantic than the gas light they were used to.
Many expos and fairs often featured exhibits that displayed the recent inventions that used electricity as their power source. The 1893 Columbian Exposition that was held in Chicago displayed 5,000 arc lights and 90,000 incandescent lamps. People that visited the expo had the opportunity to view or ride the different electrified exhibits which included three cranes, several water fountains, a moving sidewalk, elevators and a street car system that was created by General Electric.
The Pan-American Exposition that was held in Buffalo, NY in 1901 used electricity as the theme. An electric tower that was 400 feet in height, displaying 40,000 lights was featured in addition to the Electricity Building which was home to a huge exhibit of electrical appliances.
As small electrical companies sprang up across the country, power became available to more people. Many of the smaller companies began to merge into larger conglomerates, the largest of whom were Westinghouse Electric Company and General Electric Company. These companies built power plants with generators that produced electricity through the use of steam, fossil fuel combustion. Other plants were built using kinetic power to generate power such as wind or water. When nuclear power was developed, the power released when nuclear reactions occurred began to be used to create electricity.
The demand for electricity grew by 12% every year in the first 30 years of the 20th century. Today, renewable sources of power are being used to create electricity as the demand continues to grow. Hydropower, wind power and solar power are all being used as America tries to help the environment and meet the demand for electricity.