17.

1 INTRODUCTION
Electricity is a form of energy tied to the existence of electrical
charge and, as a result, is related to magnetism. It plays a funda
mental role in all the technologies we use today. Everyday work
and play activities through manufacturing and scientific research
use electricity as a source of energy. In this chapter, the theory of
electricity, fundamental units, and costs are introduced. Devices,
equipment, and materials used to distribute electricity from the
power utility to points of use in the building and building electri
cal system design methods are discussed in Chapters 18 and 19.

The study and development of electricity occurred over many

centuries. It has its roots about 600 B.C.E. when a Greek mathe
matician named Thales documented what eventually became
known as static electricity. He recorded that after rubbing
amber, a yellowish, translucent mineral, with a piece of wool or
fur other light objects such as straw or feathers were attracted to
the amber. For centuries this distinctive property was thought to
be unique to amber.
There was little development in the understanding of
electricity until about 1600 when English scientist William
Gilbert described the electrification of many substances. He
coined the term , which is derived from the Latin
term meaning to “produce from amber by friction.”
It has its roots in the Greek term which means,
“beaming sun.” Gradual improvements in the understanding
of electricity have led to the invention of motors, generators,
telephones, radio and television, and computers.
In 1660, a German experimenter named Otto von Guer
icke built the first electric generating machine. It was con
structed of a ball of sulfur, rotated by a crank with one hand and
rubbed with the other. Other experimenters recognized that
other substances, such as copper, silver, and gold, did not attract
anything. An Englishman, Stephen Gray, distinguished between
materials that were conductors and nonconductors in 1729.
About 1746, Ewald Georg von Kleist, a German inventor,
and Dutch physicist Pieter van Musschenbroek of the Univer
sity of Leyden, working independently, invented an electrical
storage device called a Leyden jar, a glass jar coated inside and
outside with tin foil. Static electricity could be discharged by
simultaneously touching the inner and outer foil layers. It
demonstrated that electricity could be stored for future use.
In 1747, American inventor and statesman, Benjamin
Franklin, suggested the existence of an electrical fluid and sur
mised that an electric charge was made up of two types of elec
tric forces, an attractive force and a repulsive force. To identify
these two forces, he gave the names positive and negative,
which are still in use today. Franklin conducted his famous kite
experiment in 1752. He flew a kite with a stiff wire pointing up
ward as a thunderstorm was about to break. He attached a metal
key to the other end of the hemp string, and let it hang close to
a Leyden jar. Rain moistened the string, which could then con
duct electricity. Sparks jumped from the key to the jar. Al
though there was no lightning, there was enough electricity in
the air for Franklin to prove that electricity and lightning are the
same thing.
In 1786, an Italian anatomy professor, Luigi Galvani, ob
served that a discharge of static electricity made a dead frog’s
leg twitch. Ensuing experimentation produced what was a sim
ple electron cell using the fluids of the leg as an electrolyte and
the muscle as a circuit and indicator. Expanding on Galvani’s
findings, Alessandro Volta, another Italian, built the voltaic
pile, an early type of electric cell or battery.
In 1820, H. C. Oersted, a Danish physicist, discovered
that a magnetic field surrounds a current-carrying wire, by
observing that electrical currents affected the needle on a com
pass. Within two years Andre Marie Ampere, a French mathe
matician, observed that a coil of wires acts like a magnet when
electrical current is passed thorough it. Shortly thereafter, D. F.
Arago invented the electromagnet and Joseph Henry, an Amer
ican, demonstrated an electromagnetic device that was capable
of lifting over a thousand pounds. Also as the result of the
newly discovered electromagnet, Michael Faraday, an English
man, developed a crude electric motor in 1831, but a practical
motor was not developed until 1870. Both Faraday and Joseph
Henry, working independently, invented the electric generator
with which to power the motor.
In 1831, American Samuel Morse conceived the idea of
sending coded messages over wires using the electromagnetic
telegraph and a code of electrical impulses identified as dots
and dashes that eventually became known as “Morse Code.”
The first message sent by the electric telegraph was “What
hath God wrought,” from the Supreme Court Room in the
U.S. Capitol to the railway depot at Baltimore on May 24,
1844. Morse’s electric telegraph is recognized as the first
practical use of electricity and the first system of electrical
communication.

Charles de Coulomb was the first person to measure the

amount of electricity and magnetism generated in a circuit. G. S.
Ohm, a German college teacher, formulated a law showing the
relationship between volts, amps, and resistance. Henry and
Ohm demonstrated that in a long electric line it was better to
have relatively high voltage and low current. Additionally, J. P.
Joule, G. R. Kirchhoff, and J. C. Maxwell also developed math
ematical relationships and rules concerning electrical circuiting.
In the late 1800s, electric lighting was viewed as an ideal
use of electrical energy. Although arc lights were invented and
put to practical use for lighting streets by 1860, it was not until
1879 that a practical incandescent lamp was developed inde
pendently by Thomas Edison in America and Joseph Swan in
England. Edison was the first to patent the commercially feasi
ble incandescent lamp so he is recognized as the inventor. The
development of electric lighting is covered in Chapter 20.
In 1882, the Edison Electric Light Company, later known
as General Electric, successfully demonstrated the use of artifi
cial lighting by powering incandescent streetlights and lamps in
London and New York City. By the end of the 1880s, small
electrical stations based on Edison’s designs were in use a num
ber of U.S. cities. However, each power station was able to
power only a few city blocks. Edison’s designs still serve as the
basis of how we to distribute electricity from power stations
with the exception that Edison’s systems were direct current
systems. Direct current systems had the problematic character
istic that current could not be economically transmitted over
long distances.
American Nikola Tesla of Croatian decent, one of Edi
son’s former employees and a rival of Edison at the end of the
19th century, is the inventor of 3-phase power distribution, the
alternating current motor, wireless transmission. He began ex
perimenting on generators in 1883, and discovered the rotating
magnetic field. This phenomenon serves as the basic principle of
the alternating current generator. Tesla then developed plans for
an alternating current induction motor, which become the first
step towards the successful utilization of alternating current.
In 1885, George Westinghouse, head of the Westing
house Electric Company, bought the patent rights to Tesla’s
alternating current system. In America, in 1886 the first alter
nating current power station was placed in operation, but as no
alternating current motor was available, the output of this sta
tion was limited to lighting. In 1888, the alternating current
motor was introduced and ultimately became the most com
monly used electric motor in buildings (e.g., for fans, air condi
tioners, and refrigerators). L. Caulard and J. D. Gibbs announced
the first transformer in 1883. This allowed alternating current
power to be generated at low voltage, then stepped up to high
voltage for efficient transmission, and then stepped down to an
even lower voltage for safety reasons.
Large-scale electric power distribution began on August
26, 1895, when water flowing over Niagara Falls was diverted
through a pair of high-speed turbines that were coupled to two
5000-horsepower generators that powered nearby manufacturing
plants. The following year a portion was transmitted 20 miles
to the city of Buffalo, where it was used for powering lighting
and streetcars. This project involved generators produced by
Westinghouse and later by General Electric.
The Niagara project clearly demonstrated that large-scale
generation and transmission of electricity was conceptually
sound, technically feasible, and economically practical. Gradu
ally, electrical power became commercialized in urban areas of
the U.S. Gas lighting that had been used in streetlights was re
placed by electric lights and overhead wires eventually con
nected homes to a large-scale power plant operated by privately
owned electric companies.
By about 1930 most of the occupants of large cities in the
United States had electricity, yet only 10% of the Americans
who lived in rural areas had electricity. At this time, private
electric utilities determined that it was too expensive to run
long transmission lines to spaced farms. The Roosevelt admin
istration believed that if private enterprise could not supply
electric power to the people, then it was the duty of the govern
ment to do so. In 1935, the Rural Electric Administration
(REA) was created to bring electricity to these rural areas. The
REA helped to establish hundreds of electric cooperatives that
served millions of rural households.
Reliance on electricity has grown significantly over the
past decade in all countries. For example, in 2002, the U.S. De
partment of Energy reported that total U.S. net generation of
electricity was 3811 billion kWh, with 50% produced by coal
fired plants, 20% from nuclear plants, 18% from gas plants, 7%
from hydroelectric plants, 2% from petroleum-fired plants, and
2% from renewable power sources (e.g., wind, solar electric,
and so on).
In less than a century, the developed world has become
extremely dependent on electricity and problems have occurred
because of this dependence. In 1965, 1977, and 2003, power
failures blacked out much of the northeastern United States and
Canada. In 1994 California enacted legislation intended to
deregulate the electric power business in the state and establish
a competitive market. It was heralded as a model for developed
countries to follow. But, by January 2001, flaws in the Califor
nia approach had become evident with the state’s utilities
driven to the brink of bankruptcy and Californians suffering
electricity shortages and blackouts. The effects of shortages
and blackouts experienced by the general public have under
scored the significance of electricity in every day life.