Historical Energy Events

By rachelnoelle

  • Lightning

    Lightning
    In 1752, Benjamin Franklin conducted an experiment to prove that lightning is electricity by flying a kite in a storm that appeared capable of becoming a lightning storm.

  • First Electric Motor

    First Electric Motor
    The conversion of electrical energy into mechanical energy by electromagnetic means was demonstrated by British scientist Michael Faraday in 1821.

  • Heat Engines

    Heat Engines
    Nicolas Léonard Sadi Carnot developed the Carnot cycle and the associated hypothetical Carnot heat engine that is the basic theoretical model for all heat engines. This gives the first early insight into the second law of thermodynamics.

  • First Commerical Oil Well in US is Drilled

    First Commerical Oil Well in US is Drilled
    In 1859, E.L. Drake was searching for petroleum at Oil Creek in Titusville, Pennsylvania. He chose to seek it out with a drill driven by a small steam engine. He hit it on August 29 at 71 feet, initiating America's and the world's first petroleum rush.

  • First Solar Power System

    First Solar Power System
    Augustine Mouchot develops a solar powered steam generation system to drive industrial machinery.

  • Electric Light Bulb

    Electric Light Bulb
    Thomas Edison and his team discovered that a carbonized bamboo filament could last over 1200 hours. This discovery marked the beginning of commerically manufactured light bulbs.

  • First Battery Invented

    First Battery Invented
    Alessandro Volta created the first modern day battery when he built what came to be known as his voltaic pile. The pile was made of up of zinc and copper plates brine-dampened pieces of leather placed in between each plate. The plates were then stacked in alternating order on top of the other with the bottom plate and the top plate acting as the positive and negative terminals.

  • First Automobile

    First Automobile
    the first petrol or gasoline powered auto-mobile the Benz Patent-Motorwagen was invented by Karl Benz.

  • First Windmill to Generate Electricity

    First Windmill to Generate Electricity
    Charles F. Brush develops the world's first windmill that can generate electricity. He built a 12kW wind turbine that charged 408 batteries stored in the cellar of his mansion. The turbine, which ran for 20 years, had a rotor diameter of 50m and 144 rotor blades.

  • Geothermal Electric Power Plant

    Geothermal Electric Power Plant
    Prince Piero Ginori Conti invents the first geothermal power plant at the Larderello dry steam field in Tuscany, Italy.