The Evolution, The Spread and The Usage of Electricity - Report
Added on 2020-03-02
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Evolution of Electricity 1THE EVOLUTION, THE SPREAD AND THE USAGE OF ELECTRICITYNameCourseTutorUniversityCity/StateDate
Evolution of Electricity 2The evolution, the spread and the usage of electricityAffordable and reliable electricity is important in modern life. It is essential to our daily lives andsupports our economy in various aspects. We use electricity to power devices, in homes, in medicine, in engineering, and in agriculture. The modern electric world began with appliances like the telegraph, light bulb, as well as telephone and continued with radio, television, and manyappliances (Jakovac 2012, p. 316). This paper focuses on following the evolution of electricity, its transmission, usage, and the difference in consumption between the rural and urban residents. Although electricity has been known since the ancient times, it has only been harnessed its powerfor about 250 years. Benjamin Franklin’s electricity experiments-including the kite experimenting 1752- showed how little electricity was known in the era of the American Revolution and the first industrial revolution (Matthew 2004, p. 2). Since Franklin`s experiments, the grasp of electricity has grown tremendously and new ways of its usage to improve our lives (Institute for energy research 2014). One of the first primary breakthroughs in electricity occurred in 1832 when a British scientist Michael Faraday discovered the basic principles of electricity generation. Building on the experiments of Franklin and others, he found that he could create or induce an electric current by moving magnets inside coils of copper wire. This discovery of electromagnetic induction revolutionized the use of energy. Ideally, Faraday`s process is used in modern power production. The Institute of energy research (2014) suggests that in the modern era of power plants, coal has always generated more electricity in the U.S. than any other fuel sources. In the recent years, we have seen other sources of electricity- hydroelectricity, nuclear power and natural gas competing for the second place. The energy is also used primarily in
Evolution of Electricity 3driving the transport and communication industry. For instance, the transport industry depends on energy in driving trains, airplanes, and automobile machines among other transportation machines. Communication as well depends on sensor a system that as well depends on energy. The 19th-century inventors who began to harness electricity to useful purpose put their small generators right next to the machines that used the electricity as pointed out by Tolis (2015). The earliest distribution system was by Thomas Edison`s 1882 Pearl street station in Manhattan, and another that Edison built in Menlo Park, New Jersey. Like many others that were constructed during the next few years, they distributed power over copper lines using direct current. However, the method of distribution was so ineffective forcing most power plants had to be located within a mile of the place using the power known as the “load” (Matthew et al. p. 4). All the early power systems were what most people now refer to as distributed generation systems where the generators were located close to machines that used electricity. By the 1890s other inventors further developed this system of power distribution. Mastropietro, Batlle, Barroso, and Rodilla (2016) denote that the most important development was high- voltage power transmission lines that adopted the use of alternating current. In addition, alternating current allowed power lines, to transmit power over much longer distances than the direct current system.At the beginning of the 21stcentury, the transmission system is a truly interconnected network with more than 150,000 miles of high voltage transmission lines. Matthew et al. (2004) also points out that with the increasingly technology-dependent society, people depend upon the network itself as much as on the power plants that use and feed the network. It hence called for the development of a sophisticated network system that involves interconnected power plants and power lines that operated at many different voltages as shown in figure 1.
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