ELECTRICITY INTRODUCTION

We all are in a world surrounded with many equipment that runs on electricity and they become part of our life, we use them in our daily life for example tube-light, fan, refrigerator, washing machine, mobile phones, television, lamp, air conditioner and microwave oven, computers etc.

We use these appliances because they make our work faster and easier and for many other purposes. How wonderful as we press the switch, the light bulb in the room glows, but how can this be done? Answer is electricity.

There are many places which face electricity problems because they don’t have 24×7 available there due to some reason. Now what do people do in these situations? They use charging devices like a torch which they charge at the time when electricity is not available or they use an inverter with battery to lighten the electrical appliances.

I noticed almost all the research and invention done by keeping nature, natural process and requirement or need, in the mind (something that already exists – taking an idea). For example airplanes by looking at birds flying, bulb keeping sun in mind and need of the time and many more.

STARTING WITH ELECTRICITY

We discovered or invented electricity? (Discovery is recognizing something that already exists while an invention is creating something totally new with one’s own ideas and development)

First of all Electricity is a form of energy and it occurs in nature, so it was not invented but discovered. Because we know energy can neither be created nor be destroyed.

HOW ELECTRICITY COMES?

Did you ever hear something like natural electricity? Lightning in the sky is a natural weather phenomenon that occurs around the world every day, this is natural electricity.

A storm characterized by the presence of lightning and its acoustic impact on the Earth’s atmosphere is known as thunderstorm also referred as thunder, electrical storm, lightning storm, or thundershower.

ORIGIN OF ELECTRICITY

Electricity is a kind of energy and energy can neither be created nor destroyed, electricity can only be valued by the effects it gives. It is a fundamental part of nature and it is one of the normally used forms of energy.

The Electricity word comes from the Greek word “elektron” which means “amber” (Gemstone) because rubbing amber causes electrostatic phenomena.

Next hundreds of years, many inventors and scientists tried to find a method to use electrical power to make light. But in 1879, Thomas Edison was finally able to create a reliable, long-lasting electric light bulb in his laboratory.

FIRST DEMONSTRATION OF ELECTRIC LIGHT IN INDIA

In India on the date of 24 July 1879 first demonstration of electric light was held in Calcutta (now Kolkata) by P W Fleury & Co.

Asia’s first streetlights came up in Bangalore (now Bengaluru) in 05 August 1905 when the city got 100 of them installed at prominent locations.

Almost in a year, there were 861 streetlights and 1639 domestic connection was made. Older Indian people may still remember those days where kerosene lamps used as standbys when the power supply was not something to take for granted.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF ELECTRICITY

FAMOUS KITE EXPERIMENT BY FRANKLIN 

In 1752, on a dark day of June afternoon in Philadelphia, the 46 year-old Ben Franklin decided to fly a kite. His son William helped him in that experiment, they attached his kite to a silk string, tying an iron key at the other end.

Next, they join a thin metal wire from the key and insert the wire into a Leyden jar (Leyden jar is a container for storing an electrical charge).

Finally, as the sky darkened and a thunderstorm approached, they attached a silk ribbon to the key. Holding onto the kite by the silk ribbon, Ben flew the kite and once it was up in the air, he retreated into a shed so that he would not get wet. The thunder storm cloud passed over Franklin’s kite, whereupon the negative charges in the cloud passed onto his kite, down the wet silk string, to the key, and into the jar.

Franklin still, was unaffected by the negative charges as he was holding the dry silk ribbon, insulating him from the charges on the key. When he moved his free hand near the iron key, he received a shock. Why?

Because the negative charges (of electricity or electrons) in the key were so strongly attracted to his body (our body is positively charged), an electric spark jumped from the key to his hand. This experiment successfully showed that lightning is static electricity. You can experience this same reaction when you shuffle your feet on a carpet and reach for a metal doorknob.

Ben Franklin was really fortunate to have survived, after this famous incident, because several other scientists who performed this same kite experiment were electrocuted.

Realizing that this form of electricity could be charged over a conductor and into the ground, he invented the lightning rod and conductor, providing the lightning an alternative path to the earth. Soon after in his life, lightning struck his own home, but his lightning rod saved him from burning.

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HISTORY OF MODERN ELECTRICITY