Electrical engineering is an extremely vast area of knowledge, which includes everything related to the use of electrical energy. This includes the development of circuits, devices, equipment and components, and the study of electromagnetic phenomena, their practical use. The scope of electrical engineering - all areas of our lives.
How it all started
The history of the development of electrical engineering is closely connected with humanity throughout the history of its development. People were interested in natural phenomena that they could not explain. The history of the development of electrical engineering - constant attempts to repeat what was happening around.
The study went on for many, many centuries. But only in the seventeenth century, the history of the development of electrical engineering began its reckoning with the real use by a person of the knowledge and skills.
Theory
Scientists who have contributed to the development of electrical engineering are thousands and thousands of names; it is impossible to indicate all of them in this article. But there are individuals whose research has helped make our world what it is now.
Historical data say: one of the first who turned his attention to the fact that after amber was rubbed on the wool, he could attract objects, was the Greek philosopher Thales of Miletus. He conducted his experiments in the seventh century BC. Unfortunately, he could not draw any fundamental conclusions. But he carefully recorded all his observations and transmitted to posterity.
The next name in the conditional list of “electrical scientists and their inventions” appeared only in 1663, when in the city of Magdeburg, Otto von Guerick designed a machine that was a ball capable of not only attracting, but also repelling objects.
Famous scientists
Subsequently, the beginning of electrical engineering was put by such famous scientists as:
- Stephen Gray, who conducted experiments on the transmission of electricity from a distance. The result of his research was the conclusion that objects transfer charge differently.
- Charles Dufe, who put forward the theory of different types of electricity.
- Dutchman Peter van Mushenbrook. He became famous for the invention of a capacitor.
- Actively studied the phenomenon of Georg Richmann and Mikhail Lomonosov.
- Benjamin Franklin. This man has remained in history as the inventor of the lightning rod.
- Luigi Galvani.
- Vasily Petrov.
- Charles Pendant.
- Hans Oersted.
- Alessandro Volta.
- Andre Ampere.
- Michael Faraday and many others.
Energetics
Electrical engineering is a science that contains four components, the first and basic of which is electricity. This is the science of generating, transmitting and consuming energy. Mankind was able to successfully use this technology for its needs only in the 19th century.
Primitive batteries allowed the devices to work only for some time, which did not satisfy the ambitions of scientists. The inventor of the first prototype of the generator was the Hungarian Agnos Jedlik in 1827. Unfortunately, the scientist did not patent his brainchild, and his name remained only in history textbooks.
Later, the dynamo was modified by Ippolit Pixie. The device is simple: a stator that creates a constant magnetic field, and a set of windings.
The history of the development of electrical engineering and energy can not do without mentioning the name of Michael Faraday. It was he who invented the first generator, which allowed to generate current and constant voltage. Subsequently, the mechanisms were improved by Emil Sterer, Henry Wilde, Zenob Gram.
D.C
In 1873, at an exhibition in Vienna, the start-up of a pump from a machine located more than a kilometer away was clearly demonstrated.
Electricity confidently conquered the world. Such unknown new things as telegraph, electric engine on cars and ships, city lighting became available to mankind. Huge dynamos were increasingly used to produce electric current on an industrial scale. The first trams and trolleybuses began to appear in cities. The idea of direct current was massively introduced by the famous scientist Thomas Edison. However, this technology also had its drawbacks.
Theoretical electrical engineering in the writings of scientists implied covering as many settlements and territories with electricity as possible. But the direct current had an extremely limited radius of action - of the order of two to three kilometers, after which huge losses began. An important factor in the transition to alternating current of steel and the dimensions of generating machines, the size of a decent plant.
Nikola Tesla
The founder of the new technology is the Serbian scientist Nikola Tesla. He devoted his whole life to the study of the possibilities of alternating current, its transmission to a distance. Electrical engineering (for beginners this will be an interesting fact) is built on its basic principles. Today in every house there is one of the creations of the great scientist.
The inventor presented the world with multiphase generators, an induction motor, a counter and many other inventions. Over the years of work in the telegraph, telephone companies, Edison's laboratory, and subsequently at his enterprises, Tesla gained enormous experience due to the huge number of experiments.
Unfortunately, mankind has not received even a tenth of the scientist’s discoveries. The owners of the oil fields were in every possible way against the electric revolution and by any means available to them tried to stop its progress.
According to rumors, Nikola knew how to create and stop hurricanes, transmit electricity without wires to anywhere in the world, teleported a warship, and even provoked a meteorite fall in Siberia. This man was very extraordinary.
As it turned out later, Nicola was right to bet on alternating current. Electrical engineering (especially for beginners) first of all mentions its principles. He was right that electricity can be supplied over thousands of kilometers using only wires. In the case of a permanent "fellow" power plants must be located every two to three kilometers. In addition, they must be constantly maintained.
Today, there is still room for direct current for electric transport - trams, trolleybuses, electric locomotives, engines in industrial plants, batteries, chargers. However, given the development of technology, it is likely that the "constant" will soon remain only on the pages of history.
Electromechanics
The second section of electrical engineering, which explains the principle of energy conversion from mechanical to electrical and vice versa, is called electromechanics.
The first scientist to show the world his work in electromechanics was the Swiss scientist Engelbert Arnold, who in 1891 published a work devoted to the theory and design of windings for machines. Subsequently, world science was replenished with the results of the studies of Blondel, Widmar, Kostenko, Dreyfus, Tolvinsky, Krug, Park.
In 1942, the Hungarian-American Gabriel Kron finally managed to formulate a generalized theory for all electric machines and thus combine the efforts of many researchers over the past century.
Electromechanics enjoyed the steady interest of scientists all over the world, and subsequently such sciences as electrodynamics (studying the relationship of electrical and magnetic phenomena), mechanics (studying the motion of bodies and the interactions between them), as well as thermophysics (theoretical foundations of energy, thermodynamics, heat and mass transfer) arose from it. ) other.
The main problems that were studied in the framework of the research were the study and development of converters, rotating magnetic fields, linear current load, Arnold constant. The main topics are electric and asynchronous machines, various types of transformers.
Postulates of Electromechanics
The main three postulates of electromechanics are laws:
- Faraday electromagnetic induction;
- full current for the magnetic circuit;
- electromagnetic forces (aka Ampere's Law).
As a result of research by electromechanical scientists, it was proved that energy transfer is impossible without losses, all machines can operate both in engine mode and as a generator, as well as the fact that the rotor and stator fields are always stationary relative to each other.
The main formulas are the equations:
- electric car;
- voltage balance of the windings of an electric machine;
- electromagnetic moment.
Automatic control systems
The direction inevitably became popular, after it became clear that machines can successfully replace human labor.
Automatic control - the ability to manipulate the operation of other devices or even entire systems. Control can be carried out by temperature, speed, movement, angles and speed of movement. Manipulation can be carried out both in a fully automatic mode, and with the participation of a person.
The first machine of this kind can be considered an aggregate designed by Charles Babidge. Using the information embedded in the punch cards, the pumps could be controlled using a steam engine.
The first computer was described in the writings of Irish scientist Percy Ludgate, which were presented to the public in 1909.
Analog computing devices appeared right before the outbreak of World War II. Military action somewhat hindered the development of this promising industry.
The first prototype of a modern computer was created by the German Konrad Zuse in 1938.
Today, automatic control systems, as intended by their inventors, successfully replace people in industries, performing the most monotonous and dangerous work.
Electronics
The next stage in the development of electrical engineering was electronic devices, which are billions of times more accurate than their analog counterparts.
The most famous first invention is the German Enigma cryptographic machine. And later - the British electronic decoders, with the help of which they tried to solve confusing codes.
Next up were calculators and computers.
At the current stage of life, phones and tablets are associated with electronics. And what will be the development of our devices tomorrow, we can only guess. But scientists work day and night only to surprise us all and make life mute more interesting and easier.