After our initial article on electricity, I found that we move so far from the early days of electric invention till now which we can control the light using our mobile device. How did it propel us from earliest day? How is power supply and battery (by Alessandro Volta) provide us powering up of electronic device.
History Tribute to Benjamin Franklin – founder of Electricity
- In June 1752, the sky began to darken over the city of Philadelphia. Benjamin Franklin constructed a simple kite and attached a wire to the top of it to act as a lightning rod. To the bottom of the kite he attached a hemp string, and to that he attached a silk string.
- The hemp, wetted by the rain, would conduct an electrical charge quickly. The silk string, kept dry as it was held by Franklin in the doorway of a shed. Finally, Franklin attached metal key to the hemp string.
- Franklin moved his finger near the key, and as the negative charges in the metal piece were attracted to the positive charges in his hand, he felt a spark.
- After his successful demonstration, Franklin continued his work with electricity, going on to perfect his lightning rod invention.
Direct Current
DC stands for Direct Current, is defined as a unidirectional flow of electric charge. In DC current, the electrons move from an area of negative charge to an area of positive charge without changing direction.
Alternating Current
Alternating current is a voltage switching polarity or as a current switching direction back and forth, this “kind” of electricity .
The Currents War
- Starting in the late 1880s, Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla were embroiled in a battle now known as the War of the Currents.
- Edison developed direct current — current that runs continually in a single direction, like in a battery or a fuel cell. During the early years of electricity, direct current (shorthanded as DC) was the standard in the U.S. But there was one problem. Direct current is not easily converted to higher or lower voltages.
- Tesla believed that alternating current (or AC) was the solution to this problem. Alternating current reverses direction a certain number of times per second — 60 in the U.S. — and can be converted to different voltages relatively easily using a transformer.
- Edison, not wanting to lose the royalties he was earning from his direct current patents, began a campaign to discredit alternating current.
- In 1893, the Niagara Falls Power Company decided to award Westinghouse — who had licensed Tesla’s polyphase AC induction motor patent — the contract to generate power from Niagara Falls.
Today our city electricity is still predominantly powered by alternating current, but computers, LEDs, solar cells and electric vehicles all run on DC power.
When we start to wire our breadboarding, the wiring color code is important for connecting the circuitry. In general, Red color always represent live ( +ve) connect to the battery and black (-ve) or grounding (GND).
Once we can follow this rule, we are able to do more in breadboarding to power up of Microbit or Arduino circuit. We will discuss more on electronic circuit soon.
Thanks for reading this long article. Stay safe and stay home.
