10 Historical Energy Events

By jenpage18

  • First steam engine

    First steam engine
    A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid. The steam engine could generate power and transmit it to a machine.

  • Nature of electricity

    Nature of electricity
    Ben Franklin tied a key onto a kite during a storm and proved that static electricity and lightning were the same. His correct understanding of the nature of electricity paved the way for the future.

  • Electric light

    Electric light
    The first electric light bulb was invented in 1809 by Humphrey Davy. It was perfected by Thomas Edison. It is one of the conveniences that changed the way we do things in everyday life.

  • Solar power

    Solar power
    Solar panel history. In 1839 Alexandre Edmond Becquerel discovered the photovoltaic effect which explains how electricity can be generated from sunlight. He claimed that “shining light on an electrode submerged in a conductive solution would create an electric current.”

  • Fuel Cell

    Fuel Cell
    This was followed by pioneering work on what were to become fuel cells by the scientist Christian Friedrich Schönbein in 1838. William Grove, a chemist, physicist and lawyer, is generally credited with inventing the fuel cell in 1839.

  • First oil well in U.S.

    First oil well in U.S.
    The first oil well in the U.S. could produce oil and gas in sufficient quantities which makes it economically viable.

  • First battery

    First battery
    In 1799, Alessandro Volta developed the first electrical battery. The first battery invented consisted of pairs of copper and zinc discs piled on top of each other, separated by a layer of cloth or cardboard soaked in brine.

  • First automobile invented

    First automobile invented
    In 1886 the first petrol or gasoline powered automobile the Benz Patent-Motorwagen was invented by Karl Benz. The first automobile was a one-cylinder, two-stroke unit.

  • Wind turbine invented

    Wind turbine invented
    The first electricity-generating wind turbine was invented in 1888 in Cleveland, Ohio by Charles F. Brush. The turbine’s diameter was 17 meters (50 feet), it had 144 rotor blades made of cedar wood, and it generated about 12 kilowatts (kW) of power.

  • Nuclear fission is discovered

    Nuclear fission is discovered
    Nuclear fission of heavy elements was discovered on December 17, 1938 by German Otto Hahn and his assistant Fritz Strassmann, and was explained theoretically in January 1939.