Changes in electricity By Sophie Benjamin Franklin

When did electricity begin? Electricity was discovered by Benjamin Franklin. He discovered/proved it in How was electricity found?: Benjamin Franklin was not afraid to experiment. When a thought popped in his head, like lightning is a source of electricity, he was determined to prove it. Benjamin and three of his friends were trying to analyze (examine in detail in order to discover the meaning of something) electricity and experiment with it. Two of his friends got electrocuted while they were working on this. While they did this experiment, they obviously proved that lightning was electricity. Yet, the world did not know it, so Benjamin Franklin decided to do the kite experiment, but alone. Benjamin would always think about what he wanted to do in the experiment, find the materials, and think of how he could fix something if it did not work. Finally, he would gather the materials and do the experiment. Sometimes this process took a while. Benjamin was very keen to show the world that lightning was electricity. He wanted to prove this. He decided to use a metal key to do this experiment. Yet, he still needed a way to keep the key in the air. In 1752, on a stormy day, he raised his kite with a key tied near his hand. He could feel the electric shock go through his body. Benjamin had finally proven and understood lightning/electricity.

What was electricity used for before? The first electronic device was the relay (a relay is a remote switch controlled by electricity forces). The relay was invented in 1835 by Joseph Henry. The first electronic light was invented in 1800 by Humphry Davy. He experimented with electricity a lot, and soon invented an electric battery. In 1860, Sir Joseph Wilson Swan was determined to invent a practical, long-lasting electric light. In 1879, the first electric power station was built by Joseph Henry. However, Michael Faraway, invented the first electric motor. Since the invention of electric motors, the first commercial power station was able to open in San Francisco. In 1883, Thomas Alva Edison discovered that electrons (very small bits of electricity) will flow from one metal bit of the vacuum cleaner to another through the vacuum cleaner. Electricity started being used with radios in This realalised by Guglielmo Marconi. Philo Farnsworth was just a 14 year old high school student when he came up with the idea that an electron beam could scan pictures back and forth and transmit them to lots of screens around the world(this is called the TV). The first ever picture to appear on a TV was a strait black line.

What is electricity now used for? Electricity is used for many things now, partly because their is more inventions that use electricity, but also because it is easy to use and create. Here are some of the many things/items that use electricity: computers, TVs, telephones. Electricity is used in so many appliances that in every room of a house, there is at least one device/appliance that uses electricity. We have grown used to having electricity in our every day lives, so with out it, life would be very difficult. We would be very impatient e.g. Making a cake would take a lot longer because we would have to mix it our selves, instead of the cake mixer doing it for us.

How did electricity used to be made? In 1660, Otto von Guericke invented a machine that produced static electricity, this was the first electric generator( a machine that produces something e.g. electricity. Leyden Jar-The leyden jar was the original capacitor (a device that stores and releases an electrical charge). At that time electricity was considered the mysterious fluid or force. Both Dutch physicist Pieter van Musschenbroek and German scientist, Ewald Christian Von Kleist invented a leyden jar. When Ewald Christian Von Kleist first touched his leyden jar he received a powerful shock that knocked him to the floor. The leyden jar was named after Mr. Musschenbroek's hometown and university Leyden, by Abbe Nolett, a French scientist, who first made the term "Leyden jar". The jar was once called the Kleistian jar after Von Kleist, but this name did not carry on being called that.

How is electricity made now? Electricity is now made in a power plant (a factory that makes electricity). This is how electricity is made: Coal is dug up and sent on trains and boats or barges to the power plants. Then the coal is burned to heat water, to make steam. Inside the generator, the steam spins a big fan (called a turbine). The spinning turbine rotates a big magnet around a piece of wire and that motion creates a magnetic field that electrifies the wire. The electricity flows through the wire and is pushed out through high-voltage transformers. There is many ways of making electricity, here is some of them: using natural gases instead of using coal, nuclear power plants, wind farms, and hydro (water) power plants. If you would like to learn some more about electricity, go to this website- If you would like to see how electricity is made from coal, click on this link-

Bibliography eset/inventors/franklin/index.html Google images milestones/ ed.org/EducationResources/HighSchool/Electricity/wor kwithelectricity.htm ctricity.htm outElectricity/000419