This article details the history of the electrical engineering profession. Electrical engineers design power systems. ...

Early developments in electricity

Electricity has been a subject of scientific interest since at least the 17th century, but it was not until the 19th century that research into the subject started to intensify. Notable developments in this century include the work of Georg Ohm, who in 1827 quantified the relationship between the electric current and potential difference in a conductor, Michael Faraday, the discoverer of electromagnetic induction in 1831, and James Clerk Maxwell, who in 1873 published a unified theory of electricity and magnetism in his treatise on Electricity and Magnetism.^[1] Electricity is a property of matter that results from the presence or movement of electric charge. ... Georg Ohm Georg Simon Ohm, (March 16, 1787,(or 1789) Erlangen, Germany - July 6, 1854,Munich) German physicist, was born in Erlangen and educated at the university there. ... In electricity, current is the rate of flow of charges, usually through a metal wire or some other electrical conductor. ... Potential difference is a quantity in physics related to the amount of energy that would be required to move an object from one place to another against various types of force. ... Michael Faraday Michael Faraday, FRS (September 22, 1791 – August 25, 1867) was a British scientist (a physicist and chemist) who contributed significantly to the fields of electromagnetism and electrochemistry. ... Electromagnetic induction is the production of an electrical potential difference (or voltage) across a conductor situated in a changing magnetic flux. ... 1831 was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ... James Clerk Maxwell (June 13, 1831–November 5, 1879) was a Scottish mathematical physicist, born in Edinburgh. ... Maxwells equations (sometimes called the Maxwell equations) are the set of four equations, attributed to James Clerk Maxwell, that describe the behavior of both the electric and magnetic fields, as well as their interactions with matter. ... In physics, magnetism is one of the phenomena by which materials exert an attractive or repulsive force on other materials. ...

Thomas Edison built the world's first large-scale electrical supply network

During these years the study of electricity was largely considered to be a subfield of physics. It was not until the late 19th century that universities started to offer degrees in electrical engineering. In 1883 Cornell University introduced the world's first course of study in electrical engineering and in 1885 the University College London founded the first chair of electrical engineering in the United Kingdom.^[2] The University of Missouri subsequently established the first department of electrical engineering in the United States in 1886.^[3] Adjusted grayscale tonal values: contrast and brightness. ... Adjusted grayscale tonal values: contrast and brightness. ... Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847 – October 18, 1931) was an inventor and businessman who developed many devices which greatly influenced life in the 20th Century. ... A black hole concept drawing by NASA. Physics (from the Greek, φυσικός (physikos), natural, and φύσις (physis), nature) is the science of the natural world dealing with the fundamental constituents of the universe, the forces they exert on one another, and the results produced by these forces. ... A university is an institution of higher education and of research, which grants academic degrees at all levels (bachelor, master, and doctor) in a variety of subjects. ... It has been suggested that double degree be merged into this article or section. ... Cornell University is a research university whose main campus is located on the East Hill of Ithaca, New York, and whose two medical campuses are located in New York City and in Education City, Qatar, near Doha. ... University College London, commonly known as UCL, is one of the colleges that make up the University of London. ... The University of Missouri System is one of two public state university systems in the state of Missouri. ...

During this period work in the area increased dramatically. In 1882 Edison switched on the world's first large-scale electrical supply network that provided 110 volts direct current to fifty-nine customers in lower Manhattan. In 1887 Nikola Tesla filed a number of patents related to a competing form of power distribution known as alternating current. In the following years a bitter rivalry between Tesla and Edison, known as the "War of Currents", took place over the preferred method of distribution. Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847 – October 18, 1931) was an inventor and businessman who developed many devices which greatly influenced life in the 20th Century. ... Direct current (DC or continuous current) is the continuous flow of electricity through a conductor such as a wire from high to low potential. ... Nikola Tesla (July 10, 1856 – c. ... city lights viewed in a motion blurred exposure. ... In the War of Currents era in the late 1880s, Nikola Tesla and Thomas Edison became adversaries due to Edisons promotion of direct current (DC) for electric power distribution over the more efficient alternating current (AC) advocated by Tesla. ...

The efforts of the two did much to further electrical engineering—Tesla's work on induction motors and polyphase systems influenced the field for years to come, while Edison's work on telegraphy and his development of the stock ticker proved lucrative for his company, which ultimately became General Electric. However, by the end of the 19th century, other key figures in the progress of electrical engineering were beginning to emerge.^[4] Electric motors of various sizes. ... Polyphase electrical systems supply alternating current electrical power in overlapping phases. ... Stock Ticker is a now out of print board game that was popular upon its release and is still played today. ... The General Electric Company, or GE (NYSE: GE) is a multinational technology and services company. ...

Emergence of radio and electronics

Early years

In 1888 Heinrich Hertz was the first scientist to transmit and detect radio waves using electrical equipment (the spark-gap transmitter), and in 1895 Alexander Popov made the first wireless radio transmission across 60 m followed by Guglielmo Marconi who made a transmission across 2.4 km. John Fleming invented the first radio tube, the diode, in 1904. Two years later, Robert von Lieben and Lee De Forest independently developed the amplifier tube, called the triode.^[5] Manfred von Ardenne then introduced the cathode ray tube, a crucial enabling technology for electronic television, in 1931.^[6] Heinrich Hertz Heinrich Rudolf Hertz (February 22, 1857 - January 1, 1894), was the German physicist for whom the hertz, the SI unit of frequency, is named. ... The spark gap transmitter was the first practical way to send radio signals. ... Alexander Stepanovich Popov (Russian: Александр Степанович Попов) (March 4, 1859 - December 31, 1905) was a Russian physicist who publicly demonstrate transmission of radio waves (March 1896) but didnt apply for a patent an apparatus or method for radio. ... Guglielmo Marconi Guglielmo Marconi, GCVO (25 April 1874 – 20 July 1937) was an Italian electrical engineer and Nobel laureate, known for the development of a practical wireless telegraphy system commonly known as the radio. Marconi was President of the Accademia dItalia and a member of the Fascist Grand Council... Sir John Ambrose Fleming (, November 29, 1849 - April 18, 1945) was a British electrical engineer and physicist. ... In electronics, a vacuum tube (U.S. and Canadian English) or (thermionic) valve (outside North America) is a device generally used to amplify, or otherwise modify, a signal by controlling the movement of electrons in an evacuated space. ... Robert von Lieben (September 5, 1878 in Vienna – February 20, 1913 in Vienna) was a notable Austrian physicist. ... Lee De Forest patented a three-electrode version of the Audion. ... In electronics, a vacuum tube (U.S. and Canadian English) or (thermionic) valve (outside North America) is a device generally used to amplify, or otherwise modify, a signal by controlling the movement of electrons in an evacuated space. ... Manfred von Ardenne (January 20, 1907 - May 26, 1997) was a German inventor. ... Cathode ray tube employing electromagnetic focus and deflection Cutaway rendering of a color CRT The cathode ray tube or CRT, invented by Karl Ferdinand Braun, is the display device that was traditionally used in most computer displays, video monitors, televisions and oscilloscopes. ... Television is a telecommunication system for broadcasting and receiving moving pictures and sound over a distance. ...

Second World War years

The second world war saw tremendous advances in the field of electronics; especially in RADAR and with the invention of the magnetron by Randle and Boot at the University of Birmingham in 1940. Radio location, radio communication and radio guidance of aircraft were all developed in Britain at this time. An early electronic computing device, Colossus was built by Tommy Flowers of the GPO to decipher the coded messages of the German Lorenz cipher machine. Also developed at this time were advanced clandestine radio transmitters and recievers for use by secret agents. An American invention at the time was a device to scramble the telephone calls between Churchill and Roosevelt. This was called the Green Hornet system and worked by inserting noise into the signal. The noise was then extracted at the recieving end. This system was never broken by the Germans. A great amount of work was undertaken in the United States as part of the War Training Program in the areas of radio direction finding, pulsed linear networks, frequency modulation, vacuum tube circuits, transmission line theory and fundamentals of electromagnetic engineering. These studies were published shortly after the war in what became known as the 'Radio Communication Series' published by McGraw hill 1946. In 1941 Konrad Zuse presented the Z3, the world's first fully functional and programmable computer.^[7] This long range radar antenna (approximately 40m (130ft) in diameter) rotates on a track to observe activities near the horizon. ... John Randle (born December 12, 1967) is a former NFL defensive tackle who played for the Minnesota Vikings and Seattle Seahawks. ... The University of Birmingham is an English university in the city of Birmingham. ... 1940 (MCMXL) was a leap year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar). ... Communication is the process of exchanging information, usually via a common protocol. ... A Colossus Mark II computer. ... Thomas (Tommy) Harold Flowers MBE (22 December 1905–28 October 1998) was a British General Post Office (GPO) engineer who, during World War II designed Colossus — an early computer — to assist the codebreaking efforts at Bletchley Park. ... GPO can refer to: General Post Office General Post Office (Dublin) United States Government Printing Office Group Policy Object, a mechanism in Microsofts Active Directory used to apply policies to directory objects. ... The Lorenz machine was used to encrypt high-level German military communications during World War II. British cryptographers at Bletchley Park were able to break the cipher. ... SIGSALY exhibit at the National Cryptologic Museum In cryptography, SIGSALY (also Green Hornet) was a telephone scrambler used in World War II for the highest-level Allied communications. ... Konrad Zuse (June 22, 1910 – December 18, 1995) was a German engineer and computer pioneer. ... Konrad Zuses Z3 was the first working freely programmable, fully automatic machine, which attributes have often been the exact ones used as criteria in defining a computer. ...

Post war developments

Prior to the second world war, the subject was commonly known as 'radio engineering' and basically was restricted to aspects of communications and RADAR, commercial radio and early television. At this time, study of radio engineering at universities could only be undertaken as part of a physics degree.

Later, in post war years, as consumer devices began to be developed, the field broadened to include modern TV, audio systems, Hi-Fi and latterly computers and microprocessors. In 1946 the ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer) of John Presper Eckert and John Mauchly followed, beginning the computing era. The arithmetic performance of these machines allowed engineers to develop completely new technologies and achieve new objectives, including the Apollo missions and the NASA moon landing.^[8] ENIAC ENIAC, short for Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer, was long thought to have been the first electronic computer designed to be Turing-complete, capable of being reprogrammed by rewiring to solve a full range of computing problems. ... John Presper Eckert, a computer pioneer, was born April 9, 1919 in Philadelphia and died June 3, 1995 in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. ... John William Mauchly (August 30, 1907 – January 8, 1980) was an American physicist who, along with J. Presper Eckert, designed ENIAC, long held to be the first electronic digital computer, as well as EDVAC, BINAC and UNIVAC I, the first commercial computer made in the United States. ... Apollo Program insignia Project Apollo was a series of human spaceflight missions undertaken by the United States of America using the Apollo spacecraft and Saturn launch vehicle, conducted during the years 1961–1972. ... The first moon landing by a human was that of American Neil Armstrong, Commander of the Apollo 11 mission. ...

The invention of the transistor in 1947 by William B. Shockley, John Bardeen and Walter Brattain opened the door for more compact devices and led to the development of the integrated circuit in 1958 by Jack Kilby and independently in 1959 by Robert Noyce.^[9] William Bradford Shockley (February 13, 1910 – August 12, 1989) was a physicist and co-inventor of the transistor with John Bardeen and Walter Houser Brattain, for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize in physics. ... John Bardeen (May 23, 1908 – January 30, 1991) was an American physicist. ... Walter Houser Brattain (February 10, 1902 – October 13, 1987) was a physicist who, along with John Bardeen, invented the transistor. ... Optical Microscope image of an integrated circuit showing defects in the aluminium layer deposition. ... Jack Kilby holding an old calculator and one of the newest. ... Robert Noyce Robert Noyce (December 12, 1927 – June 3, 1990), nicknamed the Mayor of Silicon Valley, co-founded Fairchild Semiconductor in 1957 and Intel in 1968. ...

In the mid to late 1950s, the term radio engineering gradually gave way to the name electronics engineering, which then became a stand alone university degree subject, usually taught alongside electrical engineering with which it had become associated due to some similarities.

In 1968 Marcian Hoff invented the first microprocessor at Intel and thus ignited the development of the personal computer. The first realization of the microprocessor was the Intel 4004, a 4-bit processor developed in 1971, but only in 1973 did the Intel 8080, an 8-bit processor, make the building of the first personal computer, the Altair 8800, possible.^[10] Dr. Marcian Edward Ted Hoff Jr. ... Microprocessors, including an Intel 80486DX2 and an Intel 80386 A microprocessor (sometimes abbreviated µP) is a digital electronic component with miniaturized transistors on a single semiconductor integrated circuit (IC). ... Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC, HKEx: 4335), founded in 1968 as Integrated Electronics Corporation, is a U.S.-based multinational corporation that is best known for designing and manufacturing microprocessors and specialized integrated circuits. ... Intel C4004 microprocessor. ... Intel C8080A processor. ... Altair 8800 The MITS Altair 8800 was a microcomputer design from 1975, based on the Intel 8080A CPU. Sold as a kit through Popular Electronics magazine, the designers intended to sell only a few hundred to hobbyists, and were surprised when they sold over ten times that many in the...

References

1. ^  The Encyclopedia Britannica, edition 11 (1911). Article: "Ohm, Georg Simon", "Faraday, Michael" and "Maxwell, James Clerk"
2. ^  Welcome to ECE!. Cornell University - School of Electrical and Computer Engineering. URL accessed on December 29, 2005.
3. ^  Ryder, John and Fink, Donald; (1984). Engineers and Electrons, IEEE Press. ISBN 087942172X.
4. ^  History. National Fire Protection Association. URL accessed on January 19, 2006. (published 1996 in the NFPA Journal)
5. ^  History of Amateur Radio. What is Amateur Radio?. URL accessed on January 18, 2006.
6. ^  History of TV. URL accessed on January 18, 2006.
7. ^  The Z3. URL accessed on January 18, 2006.
8. ^  The ENIAC Museum Online. URL accessed on January 18, 2006.
9. ^  Electronics Timeline. Greatest Engineering Achievements of the Twentieth Century. URL accessed on January 18, 2006.
10. ^  Computing History (1971 - 1975). URL accessed on January 18, 2006.