Electronics – Module 1 In 1780, he discovered that the muscles

of dead frogs’ legs twitched when struck

History of Electricity and Electronics by an electrical spark. This was one of
1737-1798 Luigi Galvani the first forays into the study of
Electricity is an essential part of modern life, so vital that most bioelectricity, a field that still studies the
of us cannot imagine a life without it. But amazingly, it has only been electrical patterns and signals from
an everyday aspect of our lives for a little over a century. tissues such as the nerves and muscles.
He made the revolutionary discovery that
Andre-Marie a wire carrying electric current can attract
1775-1836
Year Scientist/Inventor Event/Discovery/Invention Ampere or repel another wire next to it if that wire
is also carrying electric current.
Discovered static electricity by rubbing
fur/wool on substances, such as amber. Discovered the Ohm’s law, named after
624-546 BC Thales of Miletus him, which states that the current flow
A charged amber can attract light objects
such as bits of paper and hair. George Simon through a conductor is directly
1789-1854
Ohm proportional to the potential difference
In 1663, he discovered that first electric
(voltage) and inversely proportional to
generator, which produced static
the resistance.
electricity by applying friction against a
Otto von revolving ball or sulfur. IN 1672, he Best known for his discovery of
1602-1686 electromagnetic induction.
Guericke discovered that the electricity thus
produced could cause the surface of the Electromagnetic Induction or
sulfur to glow, hence, he became the first Induction is a process in which a
1791-1867 Michael Faraday
man to view the electroluminescence. conductor is put in a particular position
and magnetic field keeps varying or
German physicist who discovered that an magnetic field is stationary and a
electric current flows between different conductor is moving.
conductive materials that are kept as He discovered the electron and then
different temperatures, known as the Joseph John went on to propose a model for the
Seebeck effect. Seebeck Effect is a 1856-1940 Thompson structure of the atom known as the “plum
Thomas Johann phenomenon in which a temperature pudding” model.
1770-1831
Seebeck difference between two dissimilar He is famous in his invention of Tesla
electrical conductors or semiconductors coil, an electrical resonant transformer
produces a voltage difference between circuit used to produce high frequency
the two substances. This can be applied 1858-1943 Nikola Tesla alternating current electricity. He
to thermal-to-electrical energy invented the first alternating current (AC)
conversion. motor and developed AC generation and
French physicist best known for the transmission technology,
formulation of Coulomb’s law, which He invented a string galvanometer that
states that the force between two could be used to directly record the
electrical charges is proportional to the electrical activity of the heart known as
Charles Augustin
1736-1806 product of the charges and inversely Einthoven galvanometer”. With this
de Coulomb William
proportional to the square of the distance 1860-1927 instrument, he was able to measure the
Einthoven
between them. Coulombic force is one changes of electrical potential caused by
of the principal forces involved in atomic contractions of the heart muscle and to
reactions. record them graphically, in which he
called this process as electrocardiogram.
 He was an inventor of the Van de Graaf Benjamin Franklin introduced the terms “positive” and
Generator, a device which produces very “negative” charges. Back in 1752, when he demonstrated that
high voltage direct current electricity at lightning was electrical with his famous kite experiment, people could
low current levels. A Van de Graaf
Robert Van De nit even fathom the many conveniences and luxuries that electricity
1901-1967 generator is an electrostatic generator
Graaff would bring to the 20th and 21st centuries.
which uses a moving belt to accumulate
electric charge on a hollow metal globe
on the top of an insulated column, The very first cell phone call was made on April 3, 1973 by
creating very high electric potentials. Martin Cooper. He is an American engineer who led the team in 1972-
1973 to build the first mobile cellphone and its widely regarded as the
father of the cellular phone.
Abstraction and Generalization
Affordable reliable electricity is fundamental to modern life.
Electricity began with man’ curiosity on the peculiar ability of Electricity provides all the comfort we can think of, and it quietly
amber, a hard translucent yellowish-brown fossil resin, to attract bits breathes life into the digital world we tap into with our smartphones
of material after it was rubbed with fur. and computers.
At the turn of the 17th century, William Gilbert, an English
scientist, was the first person to use the word electricity from the
Greek word electron, meaning ‘amber’. He believed that electricity
was caused by a moving fluid called humor.