Fleet Fire: Thomas Edison and the Pioneers of the Electric Revolution.
Before Benjamin Franklin's famous kite-flying experiment, electricity was a misunderstood force commonly called fleet fire. Franklin abandoned the study of electricity because of its seeming lack of practicality. This is where Davis' story begins, as he chronicles a host of printers, poets, watchmakers, and a couple of scientists--most notably, Thomas Edison--whose individual efforts forged the electrical world we know today. The author weaves together stories of invention by Edison, Alessandro volta This article is about the physicist Alessandro Volta. For other uses of Volta, see Volta (disambiguation).
Count Alessandro Giuseppe Antonio Anastasio Volta (who invented the storage battery), Joseph Henry (who developed the electromagnet electromagnet, device in which magnetism is produced by an electric current. Any electric current produces a magnetic field, but the field near an ordinary straight conductor is rarely strong enough to be of practical use. ), Cyrus Field (who created the transatlantic cable The Transatlantic cable
- Can be:
- Transatlantic telegraph cable, mid 1800's
- Transatlantic telephone cable, 1920's
), and others, showing how simple devices combined into the revolutionary achievement of commercial electricity. In many cases, these individuals, like Franklin, didn't see the big picture. Georg Simon Ohm (person) Georg Simon Ohm - (1789-1854) A German physicist who became Professor of Physics at Munich University, after whom the unit of electrical resistance was named. was one such character, He postulated that the power of electricity derives from the resistance of the wire down which it travels; however, he did not live to see the running of miles of electrical cables around the world. A full third of Davis' text is devoted to Thomas Edison and others vied to bring electrical service Electrical service, in building wiring, refers to the wiring that connects the electric utility's cables in the street to the building. Specifically, electrical service is the wiring from the street, through the meter and up to the panelboard, but no farther. to the masses. Here Davis conveys the motivation behind many of the inventions detailed: the venerable quest for money. Arcade, 2003, 350 p., hardcover, $27.95.
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