We use electricity every day, and it is simply impossible to imagine modern civilization without electricity. Scientists predicted its widespread distribution several centuries ago, and as practice has shown, they were right. If the energy suddenly disappeared, the world would collapse immediately.
- The term “electricity” was coined by Queen Elizabeth’s physician William Gilbert. He used this word for the first time in a work devoted to experiments with electrified bodies, which he published in 1600.
- The world’s first power plant, which provided electricity to 85 homes on Pearl Street, was created by the efforts of Thomas Edison in 1882. At first, people were afraid of electricity, and even forbade their children to approach the light source.
- For the first time, data about people who were electrocuted appeared in ancient Egyptian texts in 2750 BC. It’s all the fish’s fault! Yes, it’s fish! In particular, an electric som capable of emitting current pulses up to 360 Volts.
- American President Benjamin Franklin did extensive research on electricity in the 18th century, and it was he who invented the lightning rod.
- The largest source of electricity in the world is hard coal. Coal burning in the furnaces of the boilers heats the water, and the rising steam turns the turbines of the generators.
- Thales of Miletus was the first scientist to pay attention to electrical phenomena. An ancient Greek philosopher pondered the fact that an amber stick, if you rub it against wool, begins to attract the wool, but he didn’t get any further than that.
- The amount of energy used by the average US household for air conditioning is approximately 20% of the nation’s electricity consumption.
- Almost a quarter of Brazil’s electricity is produced by one power station, Itaipu.
- More than half of all energy in Switzerland is produced by hydroelectric power plants, and the rest by nuclear power plants. As a result, the country’s energy sector produces almost no harmful emissions into the atmosphere.
- The first working electric car was built in 1891 by the American inventor William Morrison.
- In ancient times, the place where the lightning struck the ground indicated to the robbers of the Scythian mounds that the treasures were buried there. It’s just that lightning often strikes mounds containing metal “filling”.
- In Ethiopia, electricity appeared in 1896, after Emperor Menelik II ordered the introduction of the death penalty in the electric chair, but realized that it was useless to do it in a country without electricity.
- The Baghdad battery is a Mesopotamian artifact of the Parthian period, which is considered an ancient galvanic element, a battery created 2000 years before the birth of the well-known Alessandro Volta.
- At the end of the 19th century, a real war broke out between the inventors of direct and alternating current T. Edison and N. Tesla. An attempt was made to make the transmission of alternating current by means of power lines impossible by law. However, as is known, preference was later given to alternating current.
- It is interesting that the widespread use of alternating current, obtained in the 30s of the 19th century, began only after 70 years! The transmission of alternating current with the help of high-voltage power lines was even tried to be prohibited by law. Among the opponents of alternating current was Thomas Edison.