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Innovation at Home

Electrical Power

Electricity is naturally occurring in nature. As long as we’ve known about it, we’ve wanted to harness it.

The first real discovery of electricity dates back to ancient Greek Philosophers who observed lightning in the sky and were able to replicate little lightning bolts which we now know as static electricity.

The journey of human’s understanding of electricity has taken thousands of years. But our ability to harness it is really only something relatively new actually.

Despite knowing that electricity existed for thousands of years, and having tinkered with it for several hundred, people came to realise that it wasn’t enough to harness naturally occurring electricity, we needed to make our own.

Along came Thomas Edison, who, in 1881 brought street lights temporarily to the Surrey town of Godalming in the UK by electricity from the movement of water, called hydroelectrcity.

From there the biggest problem became getting electricity from where it was created to where it was needed. Lots of time and money were spent investigating solutions until a French inventor called Lucien Gaulard and an English engineer called John Gixon Gibbs came together to collaborate and created an electrical transformer that would change the way the world was powered.

These days we rely on electricity for the basic necessities of our lives as well as many luxuries but there is a cost to the earth.

Some of the early and most popular ways to create electricity use some of the earth’s precious fossil fuels. They create pollution through mining and the electricity production process. In this episode of Idea Evolution we challenge you to think about how we could use cleaner sources of power to maintain the lives we love without destroying the planet we call home.

Key Events

  • 1600

    On The Magnet

    A book called “De magnete, Magneticisique Corporibus” (or On the magnet) written by Mr Gilbert’s gave us the word electricity.

  • 1752

    Kite flying

    Benjamin Franklin flew a kite in a thunder storm and ‘officially’ connected lightning with electricity

    1752

  • 1800

    The Battery

    Alessandro Volta discovered a method to create a ‘river of power’ with a battery… The electrical term Voltage is named for his great work!

  • 1821

    Farraday

    First electric motor is created

    1821

  • 1881

    Let there be light

    Thomas Edison lights up a small town in the UK with an example of street lighting

  • 1882

    Removing the curse of night

    Edison brings electric lighting to New York, USA

    1882

  • 1896

    AC power wins

    The battle between DC and AC power leans more towards AC as the winner, with the power generation from Niagra Falls

UN Sustainable Development Goals

The concepts in this episode can link to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals

  • #7 EqualityAffordable & Clean Energy

Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy

  • #11 Sustainable Cities & Communities

Make cities inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable

  • #12 Responsible Production and Consumption

Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns

Challenge

Get a balloon and make some power!

  • Rub a balloon along your arm or hair….
  • What happens next?
Resources

This episode was researched and written by Melanie De Gioia

It was narrated by Rachel Brittliff & Melanie De Gioia. With special vocal appearance by Ashley Brinson.

Editing and Music design was by Melanie De Gioia.

Music was licensed from Audio Jungle/Envato

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