Research On The Latest Technologies/ Inventions Under The

Field Of Waves And Electricity

Georg Ohm

Georg Simon Ohm, a German schoolmaster, showed that current depended on
the resistance of the wire circuit it flowed through, just as water flows more
easily in a short, wide pipe than through a long, thin garden hose. He went on
to state Ohm's Law: that current varies in direct ratio to the wires' resistance.
Ohm's theories, published in 1826, were at first scorned and he was forced to
resign his teaching post in Cologne. Later vindicated, he became a physics
professor in 1849.


Andre Ampere

Andre Marie Ampere, who has been called the Newton of electricity, wsa the first
to describe current as the flow of electricity along a wire. This flow is analogous
to the surge of water through a pipe. The diagram shows two pipes, one twice
the width of the other: in a given time, twice as much water comes from the wider
pipe. Just as the rate of water flow is measured in gallons-per-second, current is
measured in coulombs-per-second, a coulomb being a unit of electrical quantity.

Nikola Tesla

In Colorado Springs, Colo., where he stayed from May 1899 until early 1900,
Tesla made what he regarded as his most important discovery-- terrestrial
stationary waves. By this discovery he proved that the Earth could be used as a
conductor and would be as responsive as a tuning fork to electrical vibrations of
a certain frequency. He also lighted 200 lamps without wires from a distance of
25 miles (40 kilometres) and created man-made lightning, producing flashes
measuring 135 feet (41 metres). Tesla's work then shifted to turbines and other
projects. Lacking funds, his ideas remained in notebooks, which are still
examined by engineers for unexploited clues. Tesla was the recipient of the
Edison Medal in 1917, the highest honour that the American Institute of Electrical
Engineers could bestow.

Alessandro Volta

Alessandro Volta, who sometimes judged a battery by the flash he saw as he
touched its wires to his eyelids, electric force is now measured in volts. Voltage is
a measure of the electrical "pressure" with which current flows through a wire.
This potential is akin to that of water stored in a high tank, ready to pour down
through a pipe. The farther water drops down a pipe, the greater will be the
pressure of its spurt from a spigot. Similarly, the greater the voltage of a battery,
the greater will be the force of current produced.

James Watt

James Watt was a Scottish engineer and inventor who played an important part
in the development of the steam engine as a practical power source. He studied
instrument making and went (1755) to London at the age of 18 to study further
and practice his trade. In 1757, he was appointed instrument maker at the
University of Glasgow; there he met the physicist Joseph Black, who was
studying the thermodynamic (heat) properties of steam. Watt studied the
Newcomen steam engine then in use and made a number of important
improvements. In 1769, he patented a separate condenser (a chamber for
condensing the steam) for the engine. He formed (1774-1800) a partnership with
the manufacturer Matthew Boulton and The Boulton and Watt steam engines
soon replaced the Newcomen engines being used to pump water out of mines.
Other improvements developed by Watt included the twin-action piston engine (in
which steam is supplied to both sides of the piston), obtaining power from the
expansion of the steam inside the cylinder, a mechanism for transforming the
reciprocating motion of the piston into rotary motion and the centrifugal governor
(a device that made use of feedback to keep the engine at a constant speed).
Although Watt did not invent the steam engine, his improved engine was the first
practical device for efficiently converting heat into useful work and therefore a
key stimulus to the Industrial Revolution.

Thomas Edison

The first great invention developed by Edison in Menlo Park was the tin foil
phonograph. While working to improve the efficiency of a telegraph transmitter,
he noted that the tape of the machine gave off a noise resembling spoken words
when played at a high speed. This caused him to wonder if he could record a
telephone message. He began experimenting with the diaphragm of a telephone
receiver by attaching a needle to it. He reasoned that the needle could prick
paper tape to record a message. His experiments led him to try a stylus on a
tinfoil cylinder, which, to his great surprise, played back the short message he
recorded, "Mary had a little lamb."
The word phonograph was the trade name for Edison's device, which played
cylinders rather than discs. The machine had two needles: one for recording and
one for playback. When you spoke into the mouthpiece, the sound vibrations of
your voice would be indented onto the cylinder by the recording needle. This
cylinder phonograph was the first machine that could record and reproduce
sound created a sensation and brought Edison international fame.

James Maxwell

James Clerk Maxwell, a Scottish physicist and mathematician, is generally
regarded as one of the world's greatest physicists. Maxwell's researches
combined the fields of electricity and magnetism and introduced the concept of
the electro-magnetic field. Following James Clerk Maxwell's research, we now
call a space modified by the presence of magnetic field lines a "magnetic field": if
a bar magnet is placed there, it will experience magnetic forces, but the field
exists even when no magnet is present. Similarly, an "electric field" is the space
in which electric forces may be sensed--for instance between metal objects
charged ( ) and (-) by a battery, as in the drawing accompanying the discussion
of the electron.
In 1864, James Clerk Maxwell demonstrated a subtle connection between the
two types of force, unexpectedly involving the velocity of light. James Clerk
Maxwell showed that an "electromagnetic wave" was possible, a rapid interplay
of electric and magnetic fields spreading with the velocity of light. Maxwell
correctly guessed that light was in fact such a wave, that it was basically an
electromagnetic phenomenon, and with this his equations paved the way to a
much deeper understanding of optics, the science of light. He further showed that
electric and magnetic fields travelled through space, in the form of waves, at a
speed of 3.0 10
8
m/s. He thus argued that light was a form of electromagnetic
radiation.
James Clerk Maxwell predicted the existence of radio waves. From this
connection sprang the idea that light was an electric phenomenon, the discovery
of radio waves, Einstein'stheory of relativity and a great deal of present-day
physics.