Gypsy Camp Blog

Benjamin Franklin began experimenting with electricity in America and documented the experiments. He was able to finance his extensive work by selling off his belongings. He is known for flying a kite in a storm that had a wet string and a key tied to the end of it. When he observed sparks leaping from the key to his hand he understood that lightning was a natural form of electricity.

Alessandro Volta of Italy invented the electric cell in 1800, making it easier for scientists to study electricity and its various applications. When the electric cells are connected together a battery is created.

Alexander Graham Bell is generally known as the inventor of the telephone. A teacher of the deaf by profession, he was fascinated with methods to transmit sound. He used electricity in his experiments on sound transmission that led to the success of the telephone.

Thomas Doolittle, a mill worker from Connecticut created the method that was used to create the first hand drawn copper wire that strong enough to use as a telegraph wire. A man by the name of Michael Faraday discovered that electricity was created when a magnet was passed through ordinary copper wire. This is the application that is used in America’s power plant to generate electricity that is delivered to customers across the country. Both the electric generator and are built on this principle. A generator takes mechanical energy and converts it to electricity. On the other hand, motors convert electrical energy to mechanical energy.

Thomas Edison was known to have done many experiments with electricity which resulted in the invention of the light bulb. While working on the light bulb his biggest challenge was finding the perfect material to use for the filament. In the end he used a carbon soaked cotton thread for the filament. The carbon was used to prevent the thread from burning. As the electricity ran through the thread it glowed. Once the light bulb caught on, Edison was able to turn his attention to the development of power plants that would produce the electricity needed to run the light bulbs. The first plant began operation 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.

The idea of using electricity was slow to catch on in America. While it was true that the new inventions had people excited, many were afraid that the new electrical current wouldn’t be safe to put in their homes. Many people were unable to afford the service. Critics complained that electricity was responsible for the end of a simple way of living. Electric lights were even criticized for being less romantic than the earlier gas lights.

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.

Electricity demand grew 12% each year during the first thirty years of the twentieth century. Today, as demand continues to grow, renewable sources of power are increasingly being put to work to supply electricity. Wind power, hydropower and solar power are all being put to more use as America tries to meet the demand and help the environment at the same time.

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