HISTORY OF ELECTRONICS
Evolution of modern electonic
technology has been based on the fabrication of semiconductors and the
consequent development of integrated circuits. However, ‘electronics’ took
birth in 1897, whereafter vacuum diode was developed by J.A. Fleming.Major
breakthrough in the field of electronics occurred in 1906 when a vacuum triode
was developed by Lee Dee Forest.Triode
could be used for amplification of electric signals.Various other vacuum and
gas electron tubes where developed in succession.
Another important event in
the development of electronics was the invention of transistorin 1948 by John
Bardeen, Walter Brattain and william shockley at Bell Laboratory.Transistor and
other semiconductor devices almost fully replaced the electron tubes except for
very high power or very high voltage appications.
Today in the twenty first century, many
consumer, military, and recreational products are made with electronic devices.
Perhaps, in the future we will see even more uses of Electronics. Almost all
phases of modern technological society use Electronics, even this computer that
is being used to type this script. The home, car, or the workplace all use
Electronics. We all use Electronics but very few know the complex history
behind Electronics. The purpose of this site is to explain the history, origin
and development of Electronics.
It is important to know the
History of Electronics (technology) so students better understand their
electronic gadgets they use everyday on an increasing bases. That is, cell
phones, ATMs, calculators, cars, fax machines, computers, copiers, radios, TV,
etc.
To understand the interesting history of these electronic devices helps explain
why science and technology are important, too. Without these technologies and electronics,
our status in the world community would be diminished, therefore it is
important to study the history of electronics, science and technology.
Electronics History (
1745 – 1996)
Ben Franklin (1746-52 ) flew
kites to demonstrate that lightning is a form of static electricity (ESD).
Charles Augustus Coulomb (1736-1806)
invented the torsion balance in 1785.
In is 1800 Count Alessandro Volta (1745-1827) announced the results of his experiments
investigation Galvani's claims about the source of electricity in the frog leg
experiment.
In the year 1820 Hans Christian Oersted (1777-1851)
in Denmark demonstrated a relationship between electricity and magnetism by
showing that an electrical wire carrying a current will deflect a magnetic
needle.
1822-27 André Marie Ampère
(1775-1836)
in France gave a formalized understanding of the relationships between
electricity and magnetism using algebra.
1826 George Simon Ohm (1787-1854)
wanted to measure the motive force of electrical currents .
Michael Faraday (1791-1867). 1820s Faraday
postulated that an electrical current moving through a wire creates
"fields of force" surrounding the wire. 1821 Faraday built the
first electric motor--a device for transforming an electrical current into
rotary motion. 1331 Faraday made the first transformer. The unit of
capacitance is named after him.
Karl Friedrich Gauss (1777-1855) Wilhelm
Eduard Weber (1804-1891). Gauss is known as one of the greatest
mathematicians of all time. The CGS unit of magnetic field density in named
after Gauss. Weber, a German physicist, also established a system of
absolute electrical units. The MKS unit of flux is named after Weber.
Joseph Henry (1799-1878) was a professor
in a small school in Albany, New York. In 1830 he observed electromagnetic
induction, a year before Faraday. The unit of induction is named after him.
1832 Heinrich F.E. Lenz (1804-1865),
born in the old university city of Tartu, Estonia (then in Russia), was a
professor at the University of St. Petersburg who carried out many experiments
following the lead of Faraday.
Samuel Finley Breese Morse (1791
- 1872) brought a practical system of telegraphy to the fore front using
electromagnets, and invented the code named after him in 1844.
Gustav Robert Kirchhoff
(1824-1887)
was a German physicist. He announced the laws which allow calculation of the
currents, voltages, and resistance of electrical networks in 1845 when he was
only 21.
James Clerk Maxwell (1831 - 1879) wrote
a mathematical treatise formalizing the theory of fields in 1856: On
Faraday's Lines of Force. In the year 1873 Maxwell published Electricity
and Magnetism, demonstrating four partial differential equations that
completely described electrical phenomena.
Hermann Lud-wig Ferdinand von Helmholtz (1821
- 1894) was an all around universal scientist and researcher.
Sir William Crookes (1832 - 1919)
investigated electrical discharges through highly evacuated "Crookes
tubes" in the year 1878.
Joseph Wilson Swan (1828 - 1914) Joseph
Swan demonstrated his electric lamp in Britain in February 1879.
Thomas Alva Edison (1847 - 1931): In
1878, Edison began work on an electric lamp and sought a material that could be
electrically heated to incandescence in a vacuum. 1882 Edison installed
the first large central power station on Pearl Street in New York City in 1882;
its steam-driven generators of 900 horsepower provided enough power for 7,200
lamps.
Oliver Heaviside (1850 - 1925) Worked
with Maxwell's equations to reduce the fatigue incurred in solving them.
Heinrich Rudolph Hertz (1857
- 1894) was the first person to demonstrate the existence of radio waves.
Nikola Tesla (1856 - 1943) devised the
polyphase alternating-current systems that form the modern electrical power
industry. The unit of magnetic field density is named after him.
Charles Proteus Steinmetz (1865
- 1923) discovered the mathematics of hysteresis loss, thus enabling engineers
of the time to reduce magnetic loss in transformers.
Guglielmo Marconi (1874 - 1937) Known
as the "father of wireless", was an Italian national who expanded on
the experiments that Hertz did, and believed that telegraphic messages could be
transmitted without wires.
Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen (1845
- 1923) discovered X rays, for which he received the first Nobel Prize for
physics in 1901.
Sir Joseph John Thomson (1856
- 1940) is universally recognized as the British scientist who discovered and
identified the electron in the year 1897.
Albert Einstein (1879 - 1955): In the year
1905, Einstein elaborated on the experimental results of Max Planck who
noticed that electromagnetic energy seemed to be emitted from radiating objects
in quantities that were discrete.
Sir John Ambrose Fleming (1849
- 1945) made the first diode tube, the Fleming valve in the year 1905.
Lee De Forest (1873 - 1961) added a grid
electrode to Flemings' valve and created the triode tube, later improved and
called the Audion.
Jack St. Clair Kilby developed the
integrated circuit while at Texas instruments.
Robert Norton Noyce (1927 - 1990) also
developed the integrated circuit with a more practical approach to scaling the
size of the circuit. He became a founder of Fairchild Semiconductor Company in
1957.
Seymour Cray (1925 - 1996) Also known
as "The Father of the Supercomputer", along with George Amdahl,
defined the supercomputer industry in the year 1976.
