The discoveries of Michael Faraday formed the foundation of electric motor technology.

English chemist, natural philosopher and physicist Michael Faraday (b. September 22, 1791, d. August
25, 1867) known as the greatest experimental scientist ever in the 19th century. He made a lot of
contribution in the fields of physics and mostly in chemistry when he discovered electromagnetic
induction led to the development of electric motors and power generation, diamagnetism, and laws of
electrolysis. He lectured extensively on chemistry and physics at the Royal Institution in London. He
received numerous accolades in his written manuscripts in practical chemistry to help the young
generation to grasp complicated concepts.

Michael Faraday's Discoveries | Inventions

Michael Faraday was best known for his discoveries of electromagnetic induction and
of the laws of electrolysis. His biggest breakthrough in electricity was his invention of
the electric motor.

He built two devices to produce what he

called electromagnetic rotation: that is a
continuous circular motion from the circular
magnetic force around a wire. Ten years
later, in 1831, he
began his great
series of
experiments in
which he
discovered electromagnetic induction. These experiments
form the basis of modern electromagnetic technology.
In 1831, using his "induction ring", Michael Faraday made one of his greatest
discoveries - electromagnetic induction: the "induction" or generation of electricity in
a wire by means of the electromagnetic effect of a current in another wire. The
induction ring was the first electric transformer. In a second series of experiments in
September he discovered magneto-electric induction: the production of a steady
electric current. To do this, Faraday attached two wires through a sliding contact to a
copper disc. By rotating the disc between the poles of a horseshoe magnet he
obtained a continuous direct current. This was the first generator. From his
experiments came devices that led to the modern electric motor, generator and
transformer.

Nikola Tesla
 
Nikola Tesla was born at midnight on July 9, 1856 in Smiljan, Lika, Croatia. He
was known to say, "I am a Serb but my fatherland is Croatia." At the age of
twenty-six while walking with a friend in a park in Budapest, Nikola recalled,
"…the idea occurred to me like a flash of lightning and in a second the truth
revealed itself. With a stick I drew in the sand the diagrams...".
He was talking about an alternating current (AC) induction motor. Nikola
patented his motor in 1893 and used it to light the World Columbian Exposition in
Chicago in the same year. Then in 1896 the world’s first hydroelectric power was
sent from Niagara Falls to light the city of Buffalo. Nikola Tesla, through George
Westinghouse, had laid the foundations of the power system used around the
world today.

Many scientists and individuals acknowledge Tesla’s foresightedness and

accredit him as being the originator of many of today’s inventions. The wording
to describe Tesla’s 1891 carbon button lamp (the "brush"), with minimal word change, serves well as a
description of the million-magnification point electron microscope developed by Vladimir R. Zworykin
in 1939. The "brush" has also been related to the cyclotron and the atom smasher.

Tesla described a vacuum bulb, considered to be the forerunner of the radio vacuum tube. He talked
about visible and invisible light and described blurred photographic plates in his laboratory, considered
to be the earliest reference to X-rays. And did Nikola venture into plasma physics when he created a
flame and described it as "burning without consuming material or even a chemical reaction"? Fifty years
before the development of the fluorescent lamp, Nikola built phosphor-coated globes and illuminated
his gas-filled tubes, which he had twisted into names. The disputed credit for the invention of the radio
was settled in 1943 when the U.S. Supreme Court reversed an initial finding in Marconi’s favor to rule
that Tesla had anticipated all other contenders with his fundamental radio patents.

The list of credits given to Nikola Tesla is large indeed. He has been associated with:
 cosmic rays
 radar
 diathermy
 the high-frequency furnace
 wave-guide for microwave transmission
 space navigation code
 cryogenic engineering
  electrotherapeutics
 energy transmission to satellites
 principles of solid state transistor technology
 the reciprocating dynamo
Tesla’s genius with electricity received further stimulation through his interest in resonance. The
ubiquitous Tesla Coil is evidence of the synergy of electricity and vibrations. With a power cord from an
insulated handle at one end and primary and secondary coils tuned to resonate at the other end, the
Tesla Coil, when plugged in, begins to vibrate and hum. The small Tesla Coil generates high voltages
and high frequencies and is used in one form or another in every radio and television set and can be
found in every university science laboratory: used to detect leaks in vacuum apparatus.

It has been said that resonance is a manner in which nature works. It covers all aspects of science from
electricity to nuclear fusion. Nothing exists in the Universe that does not have vibration. Nikola knew
that vibration is the rapid back-and-forth motion of an object, which creates waves. He also knew that
resonance is the effect of these waves on another object when, in 1898, he made an oscillator no
larger than a fist and attached it to a steel link two feet long and two inches thick.
"For a long time nothing happened..." he said. "But at last ... the great steel link began to tremble,
increased its trembling until it dilated and contracted like a beating heart - and finally broke!"
Though his genus was often ridiculed, his own comments showed his confidence.
"I know that you are a noble fellow and devoted friend and, noting your indignation at these uncalled-for
attacks, I am afraid that you might give it expression. I beg you not to do it under any condition, as you
would offend me. Let my ’friends’ do their worst, I like it better so. Let them spring on scientific societies
worthless schemes, oppose a cause which is deserving, throw sand into the eyes of those who might
see - they will reap their reward in time...."
In his younger years Nikola sensed the universe was,
"composed of a symphony of alternating currents with the harmonies played on a vast range of octaves.
The 60-cycles-per-second AC was but a single note in a lower octave. In one of the higher octaves at a
frequency of billions of cycles per second was visible light. To explore this whole range of electrical
vibration between his low-frequency alternating current and light waves, he sensed, would bring him
closer to an understanding of the cosmic symphony." (1)
In his sunset years, Tesla believed that all matter came from a primary substance, the luminiferous
ether, which filled all space.

Nikola once said,

"...I continually experience an inexpressible satisfaction from the knowledge that my poly phase system
is used throughout the world to lighten the burden of mankind and increase comfort…"
Amongst his many legacies to society are a number of small items that employ Nikola’s discoveries in
both electricity and vibration. Nikola influenced the production of personal oscillators that vibrate in tune
with "the luminiferous ether" (collectively called, Purple Plates). Like many of his inventions, the
plates cannot be explained, and yet for over twenty-eight years the plates have continued to offer the
same "increase comfort and happiness" to society that his poly phase system has provided since
1896.

Nikola Tesla, aged 86, died from coronary thrombosis at 10:30 PM on January 7, 1943 in his room at
the Hotel New Yorker
Nikola Tesla made long-distance electrical transmission networks possible
 Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847 – October 18, 1931)
was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices that greatly influenced
life around the world, including the phonograph, the motion picture camera, and a long-lasting,
practical electric light bulb. Dubbed "The Wizard of Menlo Park" (now Edison, New Jersey) by
a newspaper reporter, he was one of the first inventors to apply the principles of mass production
and large teamwork to the process of invention, and therefore is often credited with the creation
of the first industrial research laboratory.[2]

Edison is the fourth most prolific inventor in history, holding 1,093 US patents in his name, as
well as many patents in the United Kingdom, France, and Germany. He is credited with
numerous inventions that contributed to mass communication and, in particular,
telecommunications. These included a stock ticker, a mechanical vote recorder, a battery for an
electric car, electrical power, recorded music and motion pictures.

His advanced work in these fields was an outgrowth of his early career as a telegraph operator.
Edison originated the concept and implementation of electric-power generation and distribution
to homes, businesses, and factories – a crucial development in the modern industrialized world.
His first power station was on Manhattan Island, New York.

Thomas Edison built the world's first large-scale electrical supply network.
Benjamin Franklin (January 17, 1706 [O.S. January 6, 1705[1]] – April 17, 1790) was one of the
Founding Fathers of the United States. A noted polymath, Franklin was a leading author, printer,
political theorist, politician, postmaster, scientist, musician, inventor, satirist, civic activist,
statesman, and diplomat. As a scientist, he was a major figure in the American Enlightenment
and the history of physics for his discoveries and theories regarding electricity. He invented the
lightning rod, bifocals, the Franklin stove, a carriage odometer, and the glass 'armonica'. He
formed both the first public lending library in America and the first fire department in
Pennsylvania.

Franklin earned the title of "The First American" for his early and indefatigable campaigning for
colonial unity; as an author and spokesman in London for several colonies, then as the first
United States Ambassador to France, he exemplified the emerging American nation.[2] Franklin
was foundational in defining the American ethos as a marriage of the practical and democratic
values of thrift, hard work, education, community spirit, self-governing institutions, and
opposition to authoritarianism both political and religious, with the scientific and tolerant values
of the Enlightenment. In the words of historian Henry Steele Commager, "In a Franklin could be
merged the virtues of Puritanism without its defects, the illumination of the Enlightenment
without its heat."[3] To Walter Isaacson, this makes Franklin "the most accomplished American
of his age and the most influential in inventing the type of society America would become."[4]

Franklin, always proud of his working class roots, became a successful newspaper editor and
printer in Philadelphia, the leading city in the colonies. He was also partners with William
Goddard and Joseph Galloway the three of whom published the Pennsylvania Chronicle, a
newspaper that was known for its revolutionary sentiments and criticisms of the British
monarchy in the American colonies.[5] He became wealthy publishing Poor Richard's Almanack
and The Pennsylvania Gazette. Franklin gained international renown as a scientist for his famous
experiments in electricity and for his many inventions, especially the lightning rod. He played a
major role in establishing the University of Pennsylvania and was elected the first president of
the American Philosophical Society. Franklin became a national hero in America when he
spearheaded the effort to have Parliament repeal the unpopular Stamp Act. An accomplished
diplomat, he was widely admired among the French as American minister to Paris and was a
major figure in the development of positive Franco-American relations. For many years he was
the British postmaster for the colonies, which enabled him to set up the first national
communications network. He was active in community affairs, colonial and state politics, as well
as national and international affairs. From 1785 to 1788, he served as governor of Pennsylvania.
Toward the end of his life, he freed his slaves and became one of the most prominent
abolitionists.

His colorful life and legacy of scientific and political achievement, and status as one of
America's most influential Founding Fathers, have seen Franklin honored on coinage and money;
warships; the names of many towns, counties, educational institutions, namesakes, and
companies; and more than two centuries after his death, countless cultural references.

Inventions and scientific inquiries

 3.1 Atlantic Ocean currents
 3.2 No longer a printer

 3.3 Electricity
 3.4 Wave theory of light
 3.5 Meteorology
 3.6 Concept of cooling
 3.7 Temperature's effect on electrical conductivity
 3.8 Oceanography findings
 3.9 Economics

Alessandro Guiseppe Antonio Anastasio Volta

Alessandro Guiseppe Antonio Anastasio Volta (b. Como, Italy, 18th Feb.1745, d. Como, Italy,
5th March 1827) was a pioneer in the field of electricity. The SI unit of electric potential was
named after him as the Volt. The portrait (above) was featured on the Italian 10,000 Lire
banknote. He came from a Lombard family ennobled by the municipality of Como and almost
extinguished, in his time, through its service to the church. One of his paternal uncles was a
Dominican, another a Canon and the third an Archdeacon. His father, Filipo (1862-1752), after
eleven years as a Jesuit, withdrew to propagate the line. Filipo married Maddelena de' conti
Inzaghi in 1773. They had seven children; three girls, two of whom became nuns; three boys
who followed the careers of their uncles; and Alessandro, the youngest.

Alessandro was about seven when his father died. His uncle the Canon took charge of his
education. Alessandro joined the local Jesuit College in 1757. His quickness soon attracted the
attention of his teachers. In 1761 the philosophy professor, Girolamo Bonensi, tried to recruit
him. This made his uncle want to take him from school. Volta continued his education at
Seminario Benzi. His uncle wanted him to be an attorney. But, Volta chose the study of
electricity.

Alessandro was a large, vigorous man. He actively practised the Catholic faith. He, in the words
of his friend Lichtenberg, "understood a lot about the electricity of women." For many years he
enjoyed the favours of a singer, Marianna Paris, whom he might have married but for his
theological and family opinion.

Volta developed the concept of 'state of saturation of bodies' to explain attractions and repulsions
of electrified bodies. The electrophore he invented was severely criticized by Beccaria, one of
the chief authorities in electricity. In 1774, he became the principal of the state Gymnasium in
Como. In 1775, he was granted the professorship of experimental physics. Cavendish's memoir
of 1771 made Volta transform his notion of 'natural saturation' into the concept of potential. His
last memoir was on galvanic and common electricity. Seeing Volta's demonstrations, Napoleon
raised him to Count and Senator of the kingdom of Italy. During the last 20 years of his life he
had the income of a wealthy man.

André-Marie Ampére

 
André-Marie Ampére (b. Lyons, France, 22nd Jan. 1775, d. Marseilles, France, 10th June 1836)
was a mathematician, a chemist, a physicist and a philosopher. The SI unit of electric current was
named after him as the Ampere. His father, Jean-Jacques, was a merchant. Jean-Jacques exposed
his son to a library and let him educate himself according to his own tastes. André-Marie soon
discovered and perfected his mathematical talents. He even learned Latin in order to read the
works by Euler and Bernoulli. The great encyclopédie had the most important influence on him.
He was also thoroughly instructed in Catholic faith. During the French Revolution, his father was
guillotined. André-Marie was unable to bear this shock. For a year, he retreated, not talking to
anyone. During this time, he met Julie Carron who was somewhat older than he was. Ampére
pursued Julie until she consented to marry him. They were wed on the 7th of August 1799 and
their son, Jean-Jacques, was born.the following year. Ampére became the professor of physics
and chemistry at the École-Centrale of Bourgen-Bresse, where he worked on probability theory.
Julie died on the 13th of July 1803 of an illness. Ampére became inconsolable again. He married
Jeanne Potot in 1806. After the birth of their daughter, Albine, they got a divorce.

Between 1820 and 1825, after a series of experiments, Ampére provided factual evidence for his
contention that magnetism was electricity in motion, summarized in his famous 9 points. They
describe the law of action of current carrying wires, and model magnets as having circulating
currents in them. Ampére was able to unify the fields of electricity and magnetism on a basic
numeric level. Fresnel helped Ampére improve his theory by suggesting that there may be
currents of electricity around each molecule. Ampére assumed that the 'electrodynamic molecule'
was a molecule of iron that decomposed the aether, that pervaded both space and matter into the
two 'electric fluids.' Ampere's theory of the electrodynamic molecule was not accepted by
everyone. His primary opponent was Michael Faraday, who could not follow the mathematics
and did not accept his theory. Ampére's son fell in love with Mrs. Jeanne Recamier, an
entertainer and a great beauty of the empire. His daughter Albine, married an army officer who
turned out to be a drunkard. Following this, after 1827, Ampére's scientific activity declined and
he died alone, while on a tour in Marseilles.

James Prescott Joule

James Prescott Joule (b. Salford, England, 24th Dec. 1818, d. Salford, England, 11th October
1889) was the second son of a prosperous brewer. The SI Unit of energy or work was named
after him as the Joule. James was not a strong child. He had a spinal injury which left a slight
deformity. Because of this, his education was limited. To a large extent he was self taught. He
even read relatively little and had no pretence of being a great scientist. When he was 16, he and
his brother, Benjamin, studied under Dalton for about two years. His chief contact with the world
was with the members of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society. He began his
quantitative electrical work when he was 19, using a standard resistance of copper wire.
 

He was a simple, earnest and modest man. He was the first to give an expression for the heat
generated in a resistor by current flow, in 1840, and to observe magnetostriction. He spent a
major part of his life working on the mechanical equivalence of heat. In 1845, he investigated the
relationship between the temperature and the internal energy of gas. In April 1847, he gave a
popular lecture in Manchester in which he stated the concept of the conservation of energy. But,
it went unnoticed. At a meeting at Oxford in June 1847, he was advised by the chairman to
restrict himself to a brief oral report on his experiments, rather than a paper, and not to invite
discussion. Fortunately, his idea was grasped by William Thomson, Faraday and Stokes.
Recognition to Joule came from Faraday who introduced Joule's 1849 paper to the Society. This
paper won for him the 1852 Royal Medal. His last remarkable contribution was work in 1860
which resulted in a significant improvement of steam-engine efficiency. In the same year, he
made one of the first accurate galvanometers and calibrated it by use of a voltmeter. He received
many awards and medals including the 1870 Copley Medal and a pension from the queen in
1878.

His mother died in 1836. His father retired in 1883 due to illness. James and Benjamin took over
the family brewing. James married in 1847 and had a daughter and a son. After the death of his
wife in 1854, the brewery was sold. Joule's health became worse as time passed. He suffered
from frequent nose-bleeding, presumably haemophilia. But, he kept on working as much as he
could until his death.

Georg Simon Ohm

Georg Simon Ohm (b. Erlangen, Germany, 16th March 1789, d. Munich, Germany, 6th July
1854) was a mathematician and a physicist. The SI unit of electrical resistance was named after
him as the Ohm. His father, Johan Wolfgang Ohm, was a master locksmith. Johan Wolfgang
married Maria Elizabeth Beck, daughter of a master tailor. They were a protestant couple. Of
their seven children only three survived childhood: Georg Simon the eldest, Martin the
mathematician, and Elizabeth Barbara. Johan Wolfgang gave his sons a solid education in
mathematics, physics, chemistry and the philosophies of Kant and Fichte. Their mathematical
talents were soon recognised by the Erlangen professor Karl Christian Von Langsdorf. Georg
Simon matriculated on the 3rd of May 1805 at the University of Erlangen. He studied 3
semesters there until his father's displeasure at his supposed overindulgence in dancing, billiards,
and ice skating forced him to withdraw to rural Switzerland.

 
He began to teach mathematics in September 1806 in Gottstadt. He received his PhD on the 25th
of October 1811. Lack of money forced him to seek employment from the German government.
But, the best he could obtain was a post as a teacher of mathematics and physics at a poorly
attended 'Realschule' in Bamberg. He worked there with great dissatisfaction. In 1817, Ohm was
offered the position of 'Oberlehrer' of mathematics and physics at the Jesuit Gymnasium at
Cologne. He began his experiments on electricity and magnetism after 1820. His first scientific
paper was published in 1825 in which he sought a relationship between the decrease in the force
exerted by current-carrying wires and the length of the wires. In April 1826, he published two
important papers on galvanicm electricity. He published his book on Ohm's law, Die
Galvanische Kette Mathematische Bearbeit, in 1827. Sir John Leslie had already provided both
theoretical discussion and experimental confirmation of Ohm's law in a paper written in 1791
and published in 1824, which was not accepted. Ohm's law was so coldly received that Ohm
resigned his post at Cologne. Ohm obtained the professorship of physics at the Polytechninische
Schedule in Nuremberg in 1833. Finally, his work began to be recognised. In 1841, he was
awarded the Copley Medal of the Royal Society of London and was made a foreign member a
year later.

Charles William Siemens

Charles William Siemens (ne: Carl Wilhelm Siemens, b. Lenthe, Germany, 4th April 1823, d.
London, England, 9th November 1883) was a pioneer in the practical application of scientific
discoveries to industrial processes. The SI unit of electrical conductance was named after him as
the Siemens (S). Christian Ferdinand Siemens, a wealthy farmer, and his wife, Eleonore
Deichmann had eleven sons and three daughters, of whom Charles William was the seventh
child. In July 1839, Eleonore died. Unable to bear this loss, Ferdinand died six months later. A
few years later, the children were dispersed among relations and friends.

Siemens went to England in 1843. Being a shrewd businessman, he sold the patent of the
electroplating invention of his elder brother, Werner. William was naturalised as a British subject
on the 19th of March 1859. On the 23rd of July he same year, he married Anne Gordon. Siemens
Brothers, founded in 1865 by William and Werner, soon became a world famous manufacturer
of telegraphic equipment, cables, dynamos and lighting equipment. William was a member of the
Society of Telegraph Engineers; the British Association, the Institution of Civil Engineers, and
the Institute of Mechanical Engineers and a fellow of the Royal Society. He developed a highly
successful meter for measuring water consumption. His important invention of the regenerative
gas furnace and its application to open-hearth steel making and other industrial processes made
him independently wealthy before 1870. In 1874, he designed the cable ship 'Faraday' and
assisted in the laying of the first of several transatlantic cables. During the last 15 years of his life
he actively supported the development of the engineering profession and stimulated public
interest in the reduction of air pollution and the potential value of electric power in a wide
variety of engineering applications.

Suffering an acute pain in the region of the heart for a few weeks, he was attacked by a difficulty
of breathing. As he was sitting in his arm chair, peacefully and quietly, as if he were falling
asleep, his spirit passed away. The burial took place on the 26th of November, followed by a
very grand funeral service. As he had requested, the inscription on his coffin contained simply
his name. The Institute of Civil Engineers erected a stained glass window in Westminster Abbey
as a tribute of respect in his memory.

Charles-Augustin Coulomb

Charles-Augustin Coulomb (b. Angouleme, France, 14th June 1736, d. Paris, France, 23rd
August, 1806) was a pioneer in the field of electricity, magnetism and applied mechanics. The SI
unit of quantity of electric charge was named after him as the Coulomb. In his electrical studies
Coulomb determined the quantitative force law, gave the notion of electric mass, and studied
charge leakage and the surface distribution of charge on conducting bodies. In magnetism he
determined the quantitative force law, created a theory of magnetism based on molecular
polarisation, and introduced the idea of demagnetisation.

His father, Henrey, came from Montpellier, where the family was important in the legal and
administrative history of Languedoc. His mother, Catherine Bajet, was related to the wealthy de
Senac family. During Charles-Augustin's youth the family moved to Paris. Charles-Augustin
attended lectures at the College Mazarin and the College de France. An argument with his
mother over career plans caused Coulomb to follow his father to Montpellier who became
penniless later through financial speculations.

Coulomb graduated in November 1761 with the rank of lieutenant en premier in the Corps du
Génie. He worked at Brest and then at Martinique. While he was in Martinique he became
seriously ill several times. The research he did in Richefort won him the double first prize at the
academy in Paris in 1781. He became a resident in Paris. He found a wife there and raised a
family. He wrote 25 scientific Momoirs at the Academy from 1781 to 1806. He also participated
in 310 committee reports to the Academy. In 1787 Coulomb was sent to England to investigate
hospital conditions in London. In 1801 he was elected to the position of the president of the
Institute de France. By 1791, the National Assembly reorganized the Corps du Génie. Coulomb
had to resign from the corps. He received an annual pension which was reduced by two-thirds
after the Revolution. He returned to his research in Paris in December 1795, upon his election as
member for physique experiméntale in the new Institute de France. Coulomb's last public service
was as inspector general of public instruction from 1802 until his death. Coulomb's health
declined precipitously in the early summer of 1806 and he died. Secondary accounts indicate that
Revolution took most of his properties and that he died almost in poverty.

Michael Faraday

Michael Faraday (b. Newington, Surrey, England, 22nd Sep. 1791, d. Hampton Court,
Middlesex, England, 25th August 1867) was a physicist, a chemist, a physical chemist and a
natural philosopher. The SI unit of capacitance was named after him as the Farad (F). He was
born into a poor family, of which he was he third of four children. His father, James Faraday,
was a blacksmith. James Faraday's poor health prevented him from providing more than bare
necessities to his family. Michael later recalled that he was once given a loaf of bread to feed
him for a week. His parents were members of the Sandemanian Church, and Michael was
brought up within this discipline. His most favourite book was the Bible in which he had heavily
underlined, Timothy 6:10, "The love of money is the root of all evil." Michael, at the age of 14,
was apprenticed to Riebau, a bookseller and a bookbinder, in whose shop he read books on
science that came to his hands.

In 1812, one of the customers at Riebau's shop, gave Faraday a ticket to attend the last four
lectures of a course given by Humphry Davy at the Royal Institution of Great Britain. He applied
to Davy for employment, sending him as evidence of his interest the notes that he had made of
his lectures. At the age of 21, he was appointed assistance to Davy to help with both lecture
experiments and research. He accompanied Davy on a tour in Europe where he saw much of the
active scientific research. In 1821, he married Sarah Barnard, a union that was happy though
childless. Faraday became the discoverer of electromagnetic induction, of the laws of
electrolysis, and of the fundamental relations between between light and magnetism. He was the
originator of the conceptions that underlie the modern theory of the electromagnetic field. He
also discovered two unknown chlorides of carbon and a new compound of carbon. His last
discovery was the rotation of the plane of polarization of light in magnetic field. When Faraday
was endeavouring to explain to the Prime Minister or to the Chancellor of the Exchequer an
important discovery, a politician's alleged comment was, "But, after all, what use is it?"
Whereupon Faraday replied, "Why sir, there is a probability that you will soon be able to tax it!"
His mind deteriorated rapidly after the mid-1850s. In 1862, he resigned his position at the Royal
Institution, retiring to a house provided for him by Queen Victoria at Hampton Court.

Joseph Henry

Joseph Henry (b. Albany, NY, USA, 17th December 1797, d. Washington, USA, 13th May
1878) was a pioneer in the field of electromagnetism. The SI unit of inductance was named after
him as the Henry (H). He was born to a poor family of Scottish descent and raised as a
Presbyterian, a faith he followed throughout his life. His elementary education was in Albany
and Galway, New York, where he stayed with relatives. Henry was apprenticed to an Albany
watchmaker and silversmith. The theater was his principal interest as an adolescent, until a
chance reading of George Gregory's Popular Lectures on Experimental Philosophy, Astronomy,
and chemistry turned him to science. In 1819 he enrolled in the Albany Academy and remained
there until 1822, with a year off to teach in a rural school in order to support himself. He did odd
surviving jobs while he was doing his scientific research. in 1825, Henry was appointed
professor of mathematics and natural philosophy at the Albany Academy. In 1832, he accepted a
chair at the College of New Jersey.

Henry's earliest known work was in chemistry. In 1827, he started active research on electricity
and magnetism. Throughout his career, Henry was interested in terrestrial magnetism and other
geophysical topics. He independently uncovered the sense of Ohm's law and engaged in
impedance matching. In 1832, Henry discovered self-inductance following some experiments.
He also conducted investigations on capillarity, phosphorescence, heat, colour blindness and the
relative radiation of solar spots with skill and imagination. His 1835 paper was on the action of a
spiral conductor in increasing the intensity of galvanic currents. He conceived of astronomy as
the model science and mechanics as the ultimate analytical tool. Henry could not accept
Faraday's field concept because of his belief in central forces acting in a universal fluid. He
concluded that the currents are oscillatory wave phenomena exciting equivalent effects in an
electrical plenum coincident, if not identical, with the universal aether.

Henry formed the Smithsonian Committee, consisting of dedicated men forming internationally
recognized standards and engaging in free and harmonious intellectual intercourse among
themselves. Being the secretary of the Smithsonian, he was not interested in popularizing science
but with supporting research and disseminating findings.
Nicola Tesla

Nicola Tesla (b. Smiljan, Croatia, 10th July 1856, d. New York 7th Jan. 1943) was a pioneer in
the field of high-tension electricity. The SI unit of magnetic flux density was named after him as
the Tesla (T). He made many discoveries and inventions of great value to the development of
radio transmission and to the field of electricity. These include a system of arc lighting, the Tesla
induction motor and a system of alternating-current transmission, the Tesla coil, a transformer to
increase oscillating currents to high potential, a system of wireless communication, and a system
of transmitting electric power without wires. He designed the great power system at Niagara.
Tesla's advanced concepts include transmission of large quantities of electrical power without
wires and inexhaustible energy supplies from the universe. Despite over 700 patents bearing his
name he disliked being called an "inventor," much preferring the description "discoverer."

He emigrated to United States in 1884 with the hope of finding a backer for his polyphase
alternating current system. The magnet that drew him was the Niagara falls. As a boy in his teens
he had seen a picture of the falls, ever since then the hope of converting the power of the falls
into electricity had remained with him. It is said that when he thought of an object, he could see
it physically and had no need of pencil and paper, just as when he read, which he did rapidly, he
was virtually photographic.

When Edison heard his ideas he was not interested but gave him a job. Edison promised $50,000
if Tesla could perfect a new type of dynamo. When Tesla succeeded and asked for the money he
was told that he did not understand American sense of humour. At this point Tesla quit. He was
unemployed and was forced to dig ditches at $2 per day to earn a living. Fortunately his foreman
introduced him to a Mr Brown of Westinghouse and once more he had a laboratory. Tesla
continued on his invention and in May 1890, he was granted the first string of patents, and they
grew faster. George Westinghouse offered one million dollars to Tesla for his patents. During the
Spanish -American war Tesla offered to the government his invention of a "robot" to be operated
by remote control by means of his wireless system. They laughed at him. He died a pauper
leaving behind a golden legacy in the shape of his great inventions.

Wilhelm Eduard Weber

Wilhelm Eduard Weber (b. Wittenberg, Germany, 24th October 1804, d. Gottingen, Germany,
23rd June 1891) was one of the twelve children of Michael Weber, professor of theology at the
University of Wittenberg. The family lived in the house of Christian August Langguth, a
professor of medicine and natural history. The house was burned during the bombardment of
Wittenberg by the Prussians in 1813. The following year the Webers settled in Halle. Wilhelm
began his scientific work in collaboration with Ernest Heinrich at the University of Halle.

Wilhelm published his famous paper, which contained experimental investigations of water and
sound waves, in 1825. In 1831, he became the professor of physics at Gottingen, where his
friendship with Gauss began. In 1832, Weber introduced absolute units of measurements into
magnetism. Gauss and Weber founded the Gottingen Magnetische Verenin to initiate a network
of magnetic observations and to correlate the resulting measurements. In 1833, they set up a
battery-operated telegraph line some 9,000 feet long, between the physics and
astronomical observatory, in order to facilitate simultaneous magnetic observations. Weber also
managed to find time to work with his younger brother Eduard on the physiology and physics of
human locomotion.

With the death of William IV in 1837, Victoria became the queen of England and her uncle,
Ernst August, acceded to the rule of Hannover and at once revoked the liberal constitution of
1833. Weber was one of the seven Gottingen professors who signed a statement of protest. At the
king's order all the seven lost their positions. But, Weber continued his research. In 1843, Weber
became the professor of physics at Leipzig. There he formulated his law of electrical force,
which was later discarded with the triumph of Maxwell's field theory. In 1848, he was able to
return to his old position. Weber retired in 1870's, relinquishing his duties in physics to his
assistant, Edward Rieche. Rieche, later began the development of electron theory of metals from
Weber's ideas. Weber received many honours from Germany, France, and England, including the
title of Geheimrat and the Royal Society's Copley Medal. The SI unit of magnetic flux was
named after him as the Weber (Wb). Weber, a friendly, modest, and unsophisticated man,
remained unmarried. He died peacefully in his garden.

Heinrich Rudolf Hertz

Heinrich Rudolf Hertz (b. Hamburg, Germany, 22nd Feb. 1857, d. Bonn, Germany, 1st January
1894), a physicist, whose research has come to be regarded as the starting point of radio - it was
he who first detected and measured electromagnetic waves in space. The SI unit of frequency
was named after him as the Hertz (Hz). His grandfather, Heinrich David Hertz, the youngest son
of a wealthy Jewish family was converted to the Lutheran faith along with his wife and children.
David Heinrich Hertz's son, Gustav, became a Minister of Justice and was the first to attend a
university in the family. He married a classmate's sister, Anna Elisabeth Pfefferkorn, and had
five children, the eldest of whom was Heinrich Rudolf Hertz.

He was an exceptionally gifted child and excelled in every way. After completing his secondary
education, he wanted to be a structural engineer and served as an apprentice in a civil
engineering office. Reading a lot of books, he became interested in telegraphy and enrolled in the
Technical University of Dresden. Finding the level of instruction low for him, after one semester,
he embarked on his year of compulsory military service. He then enrolled in the Technical
University of Munich to do physics, but later, switched to the University of Munich. He was still
not satisfied, and after two semesters transferred to the University of Berlin where Gustav
Kirchhoff and Hermann Helmholtz taught physics. Very soon he was working as a student
assistant to Helmholtz. He graduated the following year, before which he had written two papers
on his research - determining if electrons have inertial mass and induction in rotating spheres. He
obtained his doctorate in 1880 and was appointed assistant of Helmholtz.

After three years, he went to the University of Kiel to become a lecturer in physics and soon he
was promoted and became a professor at the Technical High School in Karlsruhe, and then he
went to the University of Bonn. In 1886 he married Elizabeth Doll, and started his research on
electric waves. He wrote many papers not only in electromagnetism but also in the theory of
contact mechanics and the measurement of hardness. Suffering a severe illness which led to
chronic blood poisoning he died after indescribable suffering. He was an extremely modest man
and once denying the request for publishing his portrait he said, "... Too much honour certainly
does me harm in the eyes of reasonable men..." and four years after, following his death, his
portrait was published.

Guglielmo Marconi

Guglielmo Marconi (b. Bologna, Italy, 25th April 1874, d. Rome, Italy, 20th July, 1937) was the
second son of Giuseppe Marconi, a wealthy landowner, and his second wife, Annie Jameson, the
daughter of an Irish Whiskey distiller. Giuseppe Marconi ruled his household in the style of a
martinet. Guglielmo spent most of childhood away from home. Consequently, his education was
neglected. When he was sent to a school, he was unable to cope with his studies and other
students made fun of his poor Italian accent. He failed to pass the entrance examination to the
Italian Naval Academy and went to Livorno Technical Institute. His ambition was to have an
electrical career, but he could not even pass his matriculation. His father became very angry,
wrecked the devices Guglielmo had constructed, and even withheld his pocket money. But, his
mother did all she could to help her son do his experiments. Marconi did experiments on
electromagnetic waves with the assistance of Prof. A. Righi of Bologna and discovered that
increased transmission distance could be obtained with larger antennas. In 1895, he achieved a
transmission distance of 1.5 miles, and also conceived of 'wireless telegraph' communication.

Being unable to interest the Italian Government in the potential of his work, he moved to London
in 1896. His Irish cousin, Henry Jameson Davis, helped him to form and finance the Wireless
Telegraph and Signal Co. Ltd., which became Marconi's Wireless Telegraph Co. Ltd. in 1900.
On behalf of the Italian Government, Solari presented to Marconi a newly invented receiver.
Having increased his signaling distance to 150 miles, using a kiteborne antenna and Solari's
carbon-on-steel detector with a telephone receiver, on the 12th of December 1901, he received a
transatlantic wireless communication, the three code dots signifying the letter 'S'. He became
famous overnight. But, controversy arose when Prof. Angelo Banti pointed out that the receiver
was actually invented by a corporal signalman, Paolo Castelli. After 1902, Marconi spent most
of his time managing his companies. He was able to attract highly qualified employees including
J. A. Fleming. In 1927, Marconi's company completed a system of shortwave beam stations. In
1932, he discovered that microwaves could be received at a point much farther below the optical
horizon than had been predicted by any theory. Marconi received many awards including the
Nobel Prize for physics, which he shared with K. F. Braun in 1909.

Gustav Robert Kirchhoff

Gustav Robert Kirchhoff (b. Konigsberg, Germany, 12th March 1824, d. Berlin, Germany, 17th
October 1887) was a physicist. His father was a law councillor. Kirchhoff easily derived
Kirchhoff's voltage law for electrical network analysis between 1845-1846, while he was still a
student at Konigsberg. In 1849, following the experiments of Kohlrausch, he introduced
Kirchhoff's current law for electrical network analysis. He graduated in 1847 and married Clara
Richelot, the daughter of one of his teachers, the same year. Three years later, he was appointed
professor at Breslau. In 1854, he moved to Heidelberg, where Robert Bunsen was a professor of
chemistry. In 1869, Clara died, leaving him two sons and two daughters. In 1872, he married
Luise Brommel.

In 1859, he published an explanation of the dark lines in the sun's spectrum, discovered by Josef
von Fraunhofer. In the course of investigating the optical spectra of chemical elements,
Kirchhoff made his major contribution to science which was his experimental discovery and
theoretical analysis of a fundamental law of electromagnetic radiation which states that for all
material bodies, the ratio of absorptive and emissive power of radiation is a universal function of
wavelength and temperature. In 1860, Bunsen and Kirchhoff discovered that each chemical
substance emits light that has its own unique pattern of spectral lines. A Few months later, they
discovered a new metal, cesium and the next year, they found rubidium. They also constructed
an improved form of the spectroscope. Kirchhoff once told his bank manager of the discovery of
terrestrial metals of the sun. The bank manager said, "Of what use is gold on the sun if I cannot
get it down to earth?" later, after Queen Victoria of England had presented Kirchhoff with a
medal and a prize in gold sovereigns for work on the sun's spectrum, he took them to the bank
manager and said, "Here is some gold from the sun!"

Kirchhoff was crippled by an accident in mid-Iife which compelled him to use crutches and
wheelchair. But, he remained in good spirit. On two occasions he turned down calls to other
universities. Only when his failing health hindered his experimental work did he accept a chair of
theoretical physics offered to him in Berlin. He worked there with great devotion, until illness
forced him to give up his teaching activity in 1886. He bore with patience the long illness of his
last years. He died peacefully, presumably of a cerebral congestion.

Léon Charles Thévenin

Léon-Charles Thévenin (b.Meaux, France, 30th March 1857, d. Paris, 1926) was a French
telegraph engineer and educator. He was the one to propose the equivalent generator theorem in
1883, 43 years before Norton's complementary theorem. The theorem is commonly called
Thévenin's Theorem in his honour, but, in fact Hermann Von Helmholtz proposed it first in an
1853 paper.

Thevenin graduated from the École Polytechnique in 1876 and became one of the first students
to enrol in the École Superieure de Telegraphie (EST) to be prepared for a career in the
Government owned telegraph service. In the two-year program at the EST, he was introduced to
Gustav Kirchhoff's laws of circuit analysis. His duties included administrative and educational
activities. Thévenin devoted a considerable portion of his time to teaching, for which he had a
liking. In connection with his teaching, he undertook an investigation of Kirchhoff's laws as
applied to electric networks. This study resulted in his formulation of the equivalent generator
theorem.

He was a talented violin player. Another favourite pastime of his was angling. He remained
single but shared his home with a widowed cousin of his mother's and her two children whom he
later adopted.
 

Thévenin consulted several scholars well known at that time, and controversy arose as to
whether his law was consistent with the facts or not. Shortly before his death he was visited by a
friend of his, J. B. Pomey, and was surprised to hear that his theorem had been accepted all over
the world.

In 1926, he was taken to Paris for treatment. He left a formal request that no one should
accompany him to the cemetery except his family and that nothing be placed on his coffin but a
rose from his garden. This is how he was buried at Meaux. Thévenin is remembered as a model
engineer and employee, hard-working, of scrupulous morality, strict in his principles but kind at
heart.

Edward Lawry Norton

Edward Lawry Norton (b. Rockland, Maine, USA, 28th July 1898, d. Chatham, New Jersey,
USA, 28th January1983) was an American electrical engineer for whom the Norton equivalent
circuit is named.

Norton served as a radio operator in the U.S Navy between 1917 and 1919. He attended the
University of Maine for one year before and for one year after his wartime service, then
transferred to MIT in 1920, receiving his BS degree in electrical engineering in 1922. He started
work in 1922 at the Western Electric Corporation in New York City, which eventually became
Bell Laboratories in 1925. While working for Western Electric, he earned an MA degree in
electrical engineering from Columbia University in 1925.

Among his publications are constant resistance networks with applications to filter groups in the
Bell System Technical Journal, magnetic fluxmeter in the Bell Laboratories Record and dynamic
measurements on electromagnetic devices in the Transactions of the AIEE. Norton wrote 92
technical memoranda (TMs in Bell Laboratories parlance). Because of Norton's lack of
publications, it appears that Norton preferred working behind the scenes. As described in the
history of Bell Labs, "this reticence belied his capabilities."

 
Norton was something of a legendary figure in network theory work who turned out a prodigious
number of designs armed only with a slide rule and his intuition. Many anecdotes survive. On
one occasion T.C. Fry called in his network theory group, which included at that time Bode,
Darlington and R.L. Dietzold among others, and told them: "You fellows had better not sign up
for any graduate courses or other outside work this coming year because you are going to take
over the network design that Ed Norton has been doing single-handed." [A History of
Engineering and Science in the Bell System: Transmission Technology (1925-1975), p. 210]

He applied his deep knowledge of circuit analysis to many fields, and after World War II he
worked on Nike missile guidance systems. On November 11, 1926, he wrote the technical
memorandum Design of Finite Networks for Uniform Frequency Characteristic, that contains the
following paragraph on page 9:

"The illustrative example considered above gives the solution for the ratio of the input to output
current, since this seems to be of more practical interest. An electric network usually requires
the solution for the case of a constant voltage in series with an output impedance connected to
the input of the network. This condition would require the equations of the voltage divided by the
current in the load to be treated as above. It is ordinarily easier, however, to make use of a
simple theorem which can be easily proved, that the effect of a constant voltage E in series with
an impedance Z and the network is the same as a current I=E/Z into a parallel combination of
the network and the impedance Z. If, as is usually the case, Z is a pure resistance, the solution of
this case reduces to the case treated above for the ratio of the two currents, with the additional
complication of a resistance shunted across the input terminals of the network. If Z is not a
resistance the method still applies, but here the variation of the input current E/Z must be taken
into account."

This paragraph clearly defines what is now known as the Norton equivalent circuit in the United
States. Norton never published this result or mentioned it in any of his 18 patents and 3
publications. In Europe, it is known as the Mayer-Norton equivalent. The German
telecommunications engineer Hans Ferdinand Mayer published the same result in the same
month as Norton's technical memorandum. Norton retired in 1961 and died on January 28, 1983
at the King James Nursing Home in Chatham, New Jersey.
 ar rahman

Quantity
Symbol
Unit
Symbol for the Unit
capacitance
C
farad
F
charge
Q
coulomb
C
conductance
G
siemens
S
current
I
ampere
A
energy
W
joule
J
frequency
f
hertz
Hz
impedance
 Z
ohm
Ω
inductance
L
henry
H
period
T
second
s
power
P
watt
W
reactance
X
ohm
Ω
resistance
R
ohm
Ω
time
t
second
s
voltage
V
volt
V

abdul kalam
 sachin tendulkar

mahendra singh dhoni

mother Teresa
tamilnadu electrical chief miniter natham n. viswanathan

this logo reprents what?(IEEE deleted)

IOB bank