Heinrich Hertz

(1857-1893)
Heinrich Hertz, in full Heinrich Rudolf
Hertz, (born February
22,1857, Hamburg [Germany]—died
January 1, 1894, Bonn, Germany),
German physicist who showed that
Scottish physicist James Clerk
Maxwell’stheory
of electromagnetism was correct and
that light and heat are electromagnetic
radiations.He received a Ph.D. magna cum laude from the University of Berlin in
1880, where he studied under Hermann von Helmholtz. In 1883 he began his
studies of Maxwell’s electromagnetic theory. Between 1885 and 1889, while he
was professor of physics at the Karlsruhe Polytechnic, he
produced electromagnetic waves in the laboratory and measured their length
and velocity. He showed that the nature of their vibration and their susceptibility
to reflection and refraction were the same as those of light and heat waves. As a
result, he established beyond any doubt that light and heat are electromagnetic
radiations. The electromagnetic waves were called Hertzian and,
later, radiowaves. (He was not the first to produce such waves. Anglo-American
inventor David Hughes had done so in work that was almost universally ignored in
1879, but Hertz was the first to correctly understand their electromagnetic
nature.) In 1889 Hertz was appointed professor of physics at the University of
Bonn, where he continued his research on the discharge of electricity in rarefied
gases.
His scientific papers were translated into English and published in three volumes:
Electric Waves (1893), Miscellaneous Papers (1896), and Principles of
Mechanics (1899).

This article was most recently revised and updated by Erik Gregersen, Senior Editor.
 Alessandro Volta
(1745–1827)
The electric battery was invented by
Italian physicist Alessandro Volta.
This invention provided the first source of
continuous current. The
word voltagecomes from Volta’s name;
the volt, a unit of measurement regarding
the strength of an electric current, was
named in his honor in 1881.
Alessandro Giuseppe Antonio Anastasio
Volta was born on February 18, 1745, in Como, Lombardy (now in Italy). He
became professor of physics at the Royal School of Como in 1774. In 1775 Volta’s
interest in electricity led him to improve a device used to generate static
electricity. Volta discovered and isolated methane gas in 1776. Three years later
he was appointed to the chair of physics at the University of Pavia (now in Italy).
Volta’s battery was known as the voltaic pile or the voltaic column. It consisted of
alternating disks of zinc and silver (or copper and pewter) separated by paper or
cloth. The paper of cloth was soaked in either salt water or sodium hydroxide. A
simple and reliable source of electric current, his invention quickly led to a new
wave of electrical experiments. Within six weeks of Volta’s announcement,
English scientists William Nicholson and Anthony Carlisle used a voltaic pile to
break down water into hydrogen and oxygen. The two scientists thus used Volta’s
battery to discover electrolysis—how an electric current leads to a chemical
reaction—and creating the field of electrochemistry.
In 1801 Volta went to Paris, France, to demonstrate his battery’s generation of
electric current before Napoleon, the ruler of France. Napoleon made Volta a
count and a senator of the kingdom of Lombardy. Austrian Emperor Francis I
made Volta director of the philosophical faculty at the University of Padua (now in
Italy) in 1815. Volta died on March 5, 1827, in Como.
 James Watt
(1736–1819)

James Watt was a British inventor who

made great improvements to the steam
engine. Although he is sometimes called
the inventor of the steam engine, he in
fact just made the steam engine much
more useful . Watt was born on January
19, 1736, in Greenock, Scotland. His
father ran a ship- and house-building
business. Watt spent much time in his father’s workshops making models and
learning about ships’ instruments. In 1755 Watt moved to Londonto learn how to
make mathematical instruments, such as compasses and scales. Two years later
he opened an instrument workshop at the University of Glasgow. In addition to
mathematical instruments, he also made musical instruments and toys. In 1764
Watt was repairing a steam engine when he noticed that it wasted a lot of steam.
He developed a way to improve the machine. He was given a patent for his steam
engine in 1769. (A patent is an official document that gives inventors control over
who may use their invention.)

In 1774 Watt moved to Birmingham, England. He then became business partners

with Matthew Boulton. Watt developed a new engine that rotated a shaft, or rod,
instead of providing the simple up-and-down motion of a pump. This innovation
was especially useful in the textile industry. The partnership of Boulton and Watt
lasted 25 years.
Watt became very wealthy from his inventions. He and Boulton were elected
fellows of the Royal Society of London. Watt continued to work on his inventions
after his retirement. He died on August 25, 1819, near Birmingham