Electrical engineering is crucial to think about when people are working in industry-based occupations, when we move into new homes, when we’re working in office spaces and so on. It might be safe to say that we tend to run to other services before we come to the realization that electrical engineering is a service that acts as a foundation for many buildings and infrastructures. Without a doubt, there are so many elements that go into electrical engineering, therefore, it might be overwhelming to conduct your own research and to make sense of it all. Thankfully, we’re here to provide you with useful information about electrical engineering, regarding its history and basic functions.
17th Century: Where It All Began
Electrical phenomena sparked the minds and the attention of European thinkers dating back to the seventeenth century. This might seem like a late point in time for electrical engineering to have skyrocketed, but it’s important to keep in mind that this field of study has always been much more complex than others. The most noteworthy pioneers of early electrical studies include Ludwig Wilhelm Gilbert, Georg Simon Ohm, Hans Christian Orsted, Andre-Marie Ampere, Alessandro Volta, Joseph Henry, and Michael Faraday. These early thinkers came from countries all around the world including Germany, Denmark, France, Italy, England, and the United States. It has been noted that the field of electrical engineering may have emerged as an official discipline in 1864 when Scottish physicist James Clerk Maxwell summarized the basic laws of electricity in mathematical form. He added to this effort by showing that the radiation of electromagnetic energy travels through space at the speed of light. With this in mind, the tangibility of light was shown to represent that of an electromagnetic wave. Maxwell predicted that such waves could be artificially produced. By 1887, German physicist Heinrich Hertz fulfilled Maxwell’s theory and prediction by experimentally producing radio waves.
It was not long before the first application of electricity were to come into existence. The first practical invention of electricity was the telegraph, which was invented by Samuel F.B. Morse in 1837. The need for electricity was not heavily demanded until approximately forty years later. In 1876, the invention of the telephone landmarked history by Alexander Graham Bell followed by the invention of the light bulb, credited to Thomas A. Edison in 1878. These electricity-based devices and Edison’s first central generating plant (established in New York City of 1882) led to a large demand for people trained to work within the field of electricity.
Along with the demand for electrical engineering came the discovery of thermionic emission, also known as the “Edison Effect”. Thermionic emission is defined as a flow of current(s) through the vacuum of the lamps created by Edison. This is credited with being the first observation of currents in space. The expertise of electrical engineering grew as more early pioneers came into the picture. Hendrik Antoon Lorentz of the Netherlands postulated the electron theory of electrical charge in 1892. Adding to this theory, J.J. Thomson of England showed that thermionic emission was indeed caused by negatively charged particles (electrons), which was conducted in 1897. This inspired and sparked the work of Guglielmo Marconi of Italy, Lee de Forest of the United States, and many others. These same researchers are also credited for establishing the foundation of radio engineering. In 1930, the term “electronic” was coined and introduced to embrace radio and industrial applications of electronic tubes. When the transistor was invented in 1947 by John Bardeen, Walter H. Brattain, and William B. Shockley, electronic engineering has since been dominated by the applications of such solid-state electronic devices such as the transistor, the semiconductor diode, and integrated circuit.
The Basic Functions of Electrical and Electronics Engineering Functions
From the time that electrical engineering was created, the field has been run by two major functions: research and consulting. The functions performed by research include the studies of physics, applied mathematics, and technical sciences. These fields of study are crucial for electrical engineering as they extend our knowledge to be applied to the field of electronics. Consulting engineers must also be prevalent as they are the individuals that are responsible for recommending the best courses of action. With consulting engineers, the proliferation of new discoveries, products, and markets in the electrical industry becomes simpler for workers to maintain the range of skills required to manage their activities.
Contact Isiem International, Inc. Today
There are plenty of resources and studies that go into electrical engineering. Understanding the history and basic functions is prevalent in an industry that specializes in electrical engineering. Here at Isiem International, Inc. we embrace our origins and make use of traditional and innovative methods of electrical engineering. Contact us today to learn more about what goes into our work and daily duties.