| Even though the modern electric utility industry didn't | | | | of just a few blocks because of the transmission |
| begin until the late 1800s, we have been fascinated by | | | | inefficiencies of direct current (DC). As electricity |
| electricity since our ancestors first witnessed lightning. | | | | spread around the world, Edison's various electric |
| The ancient Greeks discovered that rubbing amber | | | | companies continued to expand until they joined to |
| produced an electric charge. Electricity is a basic part | | | | form Edison General Electric in 1889. Three years later |
| of nature and it is one of our most widely used forms | | | | Edison General Electric merged with its leading |
| of energy. It is a secondary energy source that we | | | | competitor Thompson-Houston and the company |
| get from the conversion of primary sources such as | | | | became simply General Electric. |
| natural gas, oil, coal and nuclear power. Many cities and | | | | One of Thomas Edison's main rivals was George |
| towns were built alongside waterfalls that turned | | | | Westinghouse Jr., a pioneer of the electrical industry. In |
| water wheels to perform work. Before the beginning | | | | 1886 he founded Westinghouse Electric and |
| of the electricity generation, kerosene lamps lit houses, | | | | Manufacturing Company to pursue the technology of |
| iceboxes were used to keep food cold, and rooms | | | | alternating current (AC). An alternating current power |
| were warmed by stoves. The "necessities" of today | | | | system allowed voltages to be "stepped up" by a |
| such as light bulbs, fans, air conditioners and | | | | transformer for distribution, which reduced power |
| refrigerators stem from the ideas of inventors that | | | | losses, and then "stepped down" by a transformer for |
| lived over 100 years ago. Many of us are familiar with | | | | consumer use. He thought that Edison's power |
| Benjamin Franklin's famous kite experiment and | | | | network based on low-voltage direct current was too |
| Thomas Edison's electrical light bulb, but there were | | | | inefficient to be scaled up to a large size. In 1885 |
| many other inventors that contributed greatly to our | | | | Westinghouse purchased power transformers |
| modern uses of electricity. Some of these inventors | | | | developed by Lucien Gaulard and John Dixon Gibbs. |
| simply sought to improve upon old ideas and others | | | | Transformers were not a new invention, however this |
| saw a need and let their curiosity run wild with each | | | | design was one of the first that was able to handle |
| experiment until they discovered something new. Each | | | | large amounts of power, yet was still easily |
| invention paved the way for the next. | | | | manufactured. Using these transformers and a |
| In the mid-1600s Otto von Guericke, a German | | | | Siemens alternating current generator, he began |
| physicist, started experimenting with generating | | | | experimenting with alternating current networks. |
| electricity. In 1670 he invented the first machine to | | | | Westinghouse worked to perfect the transformer |
| produce electricity in large amounts using a ball of | | | | design and build a practical alternating current power |
| sulfur which he rotated and he held his hand against | | | | network with the help of William Stanley and Franklin |
| the ball, charging it with electricity. Others, such as | | | | Leonard Pope. In 1886 Westinghouse and Stanley |
| Isaac Newton, later used this machine using a ball of | | | | installed the first multiple-voltage alternating current |
| glass instead of sulfur, and then later a cylinder, and | | | | power system. The network was driven by a |
| then a glass plate. | | | | hydropower generator that produced 500 volts. The |
| In 1747 Benjamin Franklin started to experiment with | | | | voltage was stepped up to 3,000 volts for distribution, |
| electricity and proposed the notion of positive and | | | | and then stepped back down to 100 volts to power |
| negative charge. He performed his famous kite | | | | electric lights. This device made it possible to spread |
| experiment to prove that lightning was a form of | | | | electric service over a wide area and allowed for the |
| electrical discharge in 1752. During a thunderstorm he | | | | availability of alternating current at different voltages, |
| flew a kite with a stiff wire pointing up attached to the | | | | forming the basis of modern electrical power |
| top of the kite and a key tied to the other end of the | | | | distribution. Over the next year 30 more alternating |
| string, and let it hang close to a jar. The string became | | | | current lighting systems were installed, but the method |
| wet from the rain and caused sparks to jump from | | | | was limited because they lacked an efficient metering |
| the key into the jar until the jar could not handle any | | | | system and an alternating current electric motor. In |
| more charges. This experiment proved that electricity | | | | 1888, Westinghouse and his engineer Oliver |
| and lightning are one in the same and that pointed rods | | | | Shallenberger created a power meter that would be |
| conduct electricity better than balls, leading to Franklin's | | | | more effective and the same basic meter technology |
| invention of the lightning rod. Beginning with this | | | | remains in use today. |
| experiment, the principles of electricity gradually | | | | Nikola Tesla was one of the most important |
| became understood. | | | | contributors to the birth of commercial electricity. He |
| In 1800 an Italian professor, Alessandro Volta, invented | | | | was originally an employee of Thomas Edison's and he |
| the voltaic pile which is now called an electric cell or | | | | invented a system that transmitted alternating current, |
| battery. He made a stack of disks of zinc, acid or | | | | as opposed to Edison's direct current system. Edison |
| salt-soaked paper and copper, and when he touched | | | | opposed Tesla's idea, so Tesla set up his own |
| both ends he received a shock. The volt is named | | | | laboratory and announced his invention of the first |
| after Volta. Another, who in the first half of the 1800s | | | | practical alternating current induction motor and |
| contributed greatly to our modern uses of electricity, | | | | polyphase power transmission system in 1888. The |
| was Michael Faraday. He performed experiments on | | | | polyphase system would allow transmission of |
| electricity and magnetism which led to modern | | | | alternating current electricity over long distances. |
| inventions such as the motor, generator, telegraph and | | | | Westinghouse asked Nikola Tesla to join his electric |
| telephone. In 1831 he experimented with induction and | | | | company where Tesla continued his work on the |
| discovered a way to generate a lot of electricity at | | | | alternating current induction motor and Westinghouse |
| once. We use his principle of electromagnetic induction | | | | acquired exclusive rights to Tesla's polyphase system |
| for generating electricity today in electric utility plants. | | | | patent. All of our electric motors today run on principles |
| In the mid 1800s, the invention of the electric light bulb | | | | set out by Tesla, such as the motor that produces high |
| changed everyone's life. This invention used electricity | | | | frequency signals that are used in radios and TVs. He |
| to bring indoor lighting to our homes. Thomas Edison, an | | | | also set the standard for the frequency of the |
| American inventor, didn't invent the light bulb, but | | | | transmission current, 60 hertz, which we still operate at |
| improved upon a 50-year-old idea and invented an | | | | today. |
| incandescent light bulb. Many people before him had | | | | Westinghouse and Edison feuded over the distribution |
| developed forms of electric lighting, but none of these | | | | of alternating current power and direct current power. |
| were practical for home use. In 1879, after | | | | Edison used only direct current because he thought |
| experimenting for a year and a half, he used lower | | | | that alternating current was dangerous, but |
| current electricity, a filament of carbonized sewing | | | | Westinghouse thought the risks could be controlled and |
| thread, and an improved vacuum inside the globe to | | | | were outweighed by the advantages. Even General |
| produce a practical, electrical light bulb. Edison | | | | Electric eventually switched to alternating current. In |
| demonstrated his incandescent lighting system for the | | | | 1893 the Westinghouse Company won the contract to |
| public as he electrically lit the Menlo Park laboratory | | | | set up an alternating current network to light the |
| complex. He realized the need for an electrical | | | | World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago and later to |
| distribution system to provide power for lighting and in | | | | set up the first long-range power network using three |
| 1882 the first central commercial incandescent electric | | | | giant alternating current generators to harness the |
| generating station provided light and electric power to | | | | energy of Niagara Falls into electrical energy for |
| customers in one square mile area in New York City. | | | | distribution 25 miles away. |
| This was the beginning of the electric age as the | | | | Now over 100 years later, think about how much we |
| industry was evolving from gas and electric | | | | use and rely on electricity every day to meet what we |
| carbon-arc commercial and street lighting systems. By | | | | consider to be our "basic needs" such as alarm clocks, |
| the late 1880s the demand for electric motors brought | | | | traffic lights, computers and TVs. When we walk into |
| the industry to 24-hour service and the electricity | | | | a dark room and flip the light switch, we expect instant |
| demand for transportation and industry needs was | | | | light. It's interesting to think this was once only a |
| dramatically increased. Many U.S. cities now had small | | | | daydream and it took many inventors to make it a |
| central stations, however each was limited to an area | | | | reality. |