The 19th century was an age for a number of groundbreaking technologies;Following the industrial revolution,the need for more convenient ways to do things such as communication and transport encouraged various scientists to start thinking of ways to make that happen.And with the unlimited resources available,they were allowed to transform their ideas into reality.The century started off with a groundbreaking invention;Count Alessandro Volta invented the battery.His name is now used to measure electricity ,’volts’.George Stephenson was persistent to design a better model of the steam-powered train after the earlier model had failed.He designed the first successful steam engine in 1814.Finding a formula for a liquid that can be poured and later hardens into solid stone was a dream of all scientists.Joseph Aspdin successfully created the formula for cement and it would change the way infrastructure was built.To help with the problem of communication,Samuel Morse created the Telegraph in 1837 which allowed people to communicate with each other over long distances.The telegraph was the first step in the communication revolution.
Arguably the most significant breakthrough of the 19th century was the invention of electricity.Unlike all the other inventions where it was just one inventor,a number of scientists were racing to own the patent for various inventions that used electricity.An invention patent isa grant of a property right to the inventor.It Protects the invention and keeps it under the name of the inventor and prohibits other people from exploiting the invention or claiming it as theirs.
One of the key names to participate in developing technologies with electricities was Thomas Alva Edison.He was born in February of 1947 in Milan,Ohio.He receive very little formal education as he attended school for a mere three months before staying home.His mother taught him reading,writing and mathematics.Edison was always a very curious child and believed in self improvement.At the age of thirteen,we was working as a newspaper boy delivering newspapers and magazines.Through doing this,he was allowed unlimited access to newspaper ands scientific journals.He was fascinated by the telegraph and by the age of 16,he was proficient enough to work as a telegrapher.This gave him the opportunity to travel around the world and learn about different technologies.During this time,Edison started developing serious hearing issues and as telegraphic signals were auditory,Edison started inventing devices that would help him overcome the hearing problem.
He ended up in Boston in 1868 where he received his first patent on the electric vote recorder.To work, a voting device was connected to a clerk’s desk where the names of the candidates were registered. The candidates would move a switch to either yes or no, sending electric current to the device at the clerks desk. Yes and No wheels kept track of the votes and tabulated the final results.It was intended to be used by elected candidates to replace the standard method of physically counting votes and ultimately make the voting process faster.The electronic vote recorder was a financial failure and from then on,Edison resolved that he would only invent things that he was sure the public would use.He continued to work on inventions related to the telegraph as he knew it would aid people with hearing impairments.His first successful invention was the universal stock printer which was a device that converted electrical signals from a telegraph to letter form that can be read.With the money he made on the printer,he built his first small laboratory and manufacturing facility in 1871.He continued to work on devices that would speed up the telegraph.However in 1876,Edison wasn't making enough money from his telegraphy job and decided to quit and become a full-time inventor.He moved all his labs and assistants to a newer,bigger laboratory equipped with anything he might need for a new invention.
Through his experience in working with telegraph,Edison was able to invent his first great invention; the phonograph.The phonograph would record the spoken voice and play it back.
When speaking into the receiver, the sound vibration of the voice would cause a needle to create indentations on a drum wrapped with tin foil. Later Edison would adopt cylinders and discs to permanently record music.
In 1878,Edison started focusing on another great challenge;to develop a practical,incandescent electric light.The idea of the electric light was not new as many other inventors tried developing it but could never come up with anything practical enough for home use.Following his failure with the electronic voting machine,Edison was not only focused on inventing a normal incandescent electric light,but an electric light that was practical,safe and economic in the same time so it can be used by everyday people in their homes.Eventually Edison’s light bulb ran for thirteen and a half hours.The way he achieved this was by creating a vacuum in the bulb itself,finding the right filament to use that wouldn't burn out as fast and running the build under a lower voltage.These factors allowed him to invest a light bulb that was efficient and safe enough for home use.
Edison's success with the electric light brought him ti new levels of fame and wealth.As electricity spread around the world,his companies would also grow and become more global.
During the time his companies would expand around the world Edison would hire a young inventor by the name of Nikola Tesla based off a letter of recommendation from the Continental Edison company in Paris.
Nikola Tesla was born in 1856 in Croatia.Hh got his love for invention from his mother,who would invent small household appliances to help her with her day to day life.HIs father was a priest and always pressured Nikola to follow the religious path but his interests were always about science.He moved to Budapest to work at a Central Telephone Exchange company and later switched to Paris where he would work for one of Edison's companies.In 1884,Nikola decided to move the NewYork city to work in one of Edison's factories.He was referred to as a genius on par with Edison in the recommendation letter.Tesla told Edison that he can improve his motor engine by making it ore efficient.Edison agreed and offered him fifty thousand dollars if he could do it.After Tesla completed the task and asked for his reward,Edison ridiculed him and claimed that the prize was only a joke and only offered to raise his salary.Following this incident,Nikola quit.
After parting ways with Edison,Tesla received funding to help him fund his company Tesla Electric Light where he would depend in inventions based of his new Alternating Current.
He discovered how light can be harnessed and distributed and implemented these theories into his first invention which he names the Tesla Coil.Invented in 1891,the Tesla coil uses two coils with each coil having its own storage of energy.In this case,Tesla used capacitors.The coils are connected to spark gaps which is basically just open air where the sparks can be generated.
Tesla ended up selling most of his patents to George Westinghouse,an inventor,entrepreneur and engineer who has been feuding with Edison for years.The money that Tesla made from selling his patents allowed him to continue inventing and produce many successful technologies such as AC generators,wires,Transformers and a 100 horsepower AC motor.Tesla was also able to fulfill his dream with the help of Westinghouse of building a power plant at the Niagara Falls to power NewYork cry by the use of hydroelectric power.
But arguably the most significant and important invention of Nikola Tesla were his contributions to Alternating Current(AC).All of his inventions were based of the principal of AC and went against Edison's Direct Current(DC).AC current describes flow that changes direction periodically as a result,the voltage level reserves as well as the current.AC is mainly used to deliver power to houses and buildings so that energy is not lost.DC on the other hand does not oscillate back and forth but instead provides a constant voltage or current.The problem with DC is that electricity loses power as it gets farther out.That is when Tesla developed AC which not only sends power out but also brings it back to its original source.This made it much easier to send large amounts of energy over a large area.In the 1800s DC could not be easily converted into high voltages.Therefore Edison came up with the system of small power plants to power individual cities.The problem with this was that the voltage would drop across the power lines so a power plant had to be located 1 mile away from the end user.This made it almost impossible to get electricity to rural areas or farmland.When Tesla developed Transformers,they provided a cheaper way to increase the voltage of AC and also be able to step in back down so it can be safe for home use.Stepping down the voltage also meant reducing the resistance in the wires which results in less power lost.As as result,only a number of large power plants were needed to supply electricity to a large number of people.
Building the power plant at the Niagara Falls to power NewYork city by using AC showed that AC was clearly the better method of delivering power and Edison's DC was dismissed and replaced by AC.Over the next few years,Edison started a campaign to discourage people from using AC in the United States.He directed several electrocutions of animals to show how much more dangerous AC is than DC.In attempt to showcase these dangers,some of Edison's employees designed the first electric chair of NewYork using AC.Eventually though,AC was clearly the more efficient and more favorable method of transmitting energy.
The difference between Edison and Teslas methods were that Edison was a relentless experimenter.He would perform various experiments multiple times with different equipments or variables until he got what he wanted.Tesla on the other hand,preferred a more theoretical approach and would work out his problems before implementing them in physical designs.