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Ben Franklin's Kite Experiment
Ben Franklin tied a key to the sring of a kite and flew the kite in a thunderstorm. The kite was struck by lightning and he caught an elctric charge in a jar that was attached to the key. Franklin discovered the electrical nature of lightning and that it is the same as static electricity. -
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History of Energy
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Solar Energy
In the year 1767 a Swiss scientist named Horace-Benedict de Saussure created the first solar collector – an insulated box covered with three layers of glass to absorb heat energy. Saussure’s box became widely known as the first solar oven, reaching temperatures of 230 degrees fahrenheit. -
Electric Motor
The first electric motor was demomstrated by Michael Faraday in 1821. A free-hanging wire was dipped into a pool of mercury, on which a permanent magnet (PM) was placed. When a current was passed through the wire, the wire rotated around the magnet, showing that the current gave rise to a close circular magnetic field around the wire -
Natural Gas
In 1821, William Hart dug the first successful natural gas well in the U.S. in Fredonia, New York. -
Electric Telegraph
The electric telegraph was developed in the 1830s and 1840s by Samuel Morse (1791-1872) and other inventors, the telegraph revolutionized long-distance communication. It worked by transmitting electrical signals over a wire laid between stations. -
Telephone
Alexander Graham Bell made the first U.S. patent for the telephone in 1876. -
Lightbulb
An incandescent lamp was patented by Thomas Edison on October 14, 1878. His lamp consisted of a carbon filament or strip coiled and connected to platina contact wires. -
Fuel Cell
First referemces of the fuel cell come from William Grove in the October, 1838 edition of The London and Edinburgh Philosophical Magazine and Journal of Science. A fuel cell is a device that converts the chemical energy from a fuel into electricity through a chemical reaction of positively charged hydrogen ions with oxygen or another oxidizing agent. -
Nuclear Fission
Nuclear fission of heavy elements was discovered on December 17, 1938 by German Otto Hahn and his assistant Fritz Strassmann, and explained theoretically in January 1939 by Lise Meitner and her nephew Otto Robert Frisch. -
Atomic Bomb
The discovery of nuclear fission by German chemists Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann in 1938, and its theoretical explanation by Lise Meitner and Otto Frisch, made the development of an atomic bomb a theoretical possibility. The first atomic bomb was tested on July 16, 1945
