MARCO ANTONIO LOPEZ MARTINEZ

ELECTRICAL ENGINEER'S BIBLE

Content
AMPERE, André Marie......................................................1
BARDEEN, John...............................................................3
Bohr, Niels Henrik David...................................................5
Coulomb, Charles Augustin.............................................6
Drude, Paul.......................................................................7
Edison, Thomas Alva........................................................8
EINSTEIN, Albert...............................................................9
FARADAY, Michael........................................................10
FRANKLIN, Benjamin....................................................12
Galvani Luigi....................................................................13
Gauss, Johann Carl Friedrich..........................................14
HERTZ, Heinrich Rudolf..................................................16
JOULE, James Prescott...................................................17
KIRCHHOFF, Gustav Robert..........................................18
LENZ, Heinrich Friedich Emil..........................................20
MAXWELL, James Clerk.................................................21
NORTON, Edward Lawry................................................23
OERSTED, Hans Christian..............................................24
OHM, Georg Simon.........................................................26
RICHARDSON, Sir Owen Williams.................................27
TESLA, Nikola................................................................27
THEVENIN, Leon Charles...............................................29
VOLTA, Alessandro........................................................29
WATT, James..................................................................30

caused him deep sorrow and apathy for his favorite

studies. In 1799 he married Julie Carron, who died in
1804, the same year in which he was appointed professor
AMPERE, André Marie at the Lyceum of Lyon. This death was so painful for
Ampère that he could not find solace for the rest of his life.
In 1806 he was appointed
• January 22, 1775, Lyon (France). Professor of Analysis at the
Polytechnic and later held the
† June 10, 1836, Marseille (France). position of Inspector General of
the University of Paris. His work
French mathematician and physicist who as a mathematician ranges from
established the laws that relate magnetism to probability calculations to the
electricity, creating the foundations of integration of partial differential
electrodynamics. equations. However, Ampère's
Ampère was born into a well-off middle-class family that most important studies concern
had been involved in the silk trade for several generations. electricity. A week after
At a very young age he became interested in the study of Oersted's experiments became
botany and natural history; at the age of seven his main known in France, he developed
reading material was the twenty-eight volumes of Diderot's electrodynamics by applying
Encyclopedia and the works of Rousseau and Voltaire. At infinitesimal calculus to
the age of thirteen he began to take an interest in electricity. Ampère gave the rule that bears his name,
mathematics and, upon discovering that the works of Euler namely: If a linear current arranged parallel to a
and Bernouilli were written in Latin, he learned the magnetized needle is such that it circulates through the
language very quickly. His education was eminently conductor entering through the feet and exiting through
religious; as for his family life, it was rather sad: his father the head of a supposed observer lying along the current
was executed in 1793 by the revolutionaries, which
and looking at the magnetized needle, the pole of the B: Magnetic field
needle that points North is deflected by the action of the
current towards the left of the observer. He found that a dl: Infinitesimal segment of the integration path
set of parallel coils, which he called a solenoid, behaved
like a magnet. The Memory presented in 1827 called μo: Permeability of free space
“Mathematical theory of electrodynamic phenomena
I enc: Current enclosed by the path
exclusively deduced from experience” is an admirable
logical construction and wonderful precision. In Maxwell's
opinion, Ampère's work is one of the most brilliant in the
history of science; both the theory and the experimentation
sprang in an astonishing way from the mind of the man
known as the Newton of Electricity.
Statement:

The circulation of the magnetic field intensity in a closed

contour is equal to the algebraic sum of the currents
enclosed or linked by the contour multiplied by the
permeability of free space.

The magnetic field is an angular field with a circular shape,

whose lines enclose the current. The direction of the field
at a point is tangential to the circle enclosed by the
current.

The magnetic field decreases inversely with distance from

the conductor.

Integral form of Ampère's law

Where:
 pursue his PhD in Mathematical Physics under Eugene
Wigner. His doctoral thesis was on solid state physics,
which he read in 1936. Between 1935 and 1938 he
worked at Harvard University with Professor Percy
Bridgman on electrical conduction in metals. The following
year he was hired as a professor at the University of
BARDEEN, John Minnesota, Minneapolis, where he would remain until
• May 23, 1908, Madison, 1941. During the Second World War
Wisconsin (USA).
Mundial worked as a physicist in the American Navy
† January 30, 1991, Boston, studying the demagnetization of ships. After the war, in
Massachusetts 1945, he joined Bell Laboratories, where, under the
direction of Mervin J. Kelly had initiated a research area
(USA). devoted to studying the conduction properties of
American engineer who invented semiconductors, with the intention of replacing valves with
the transistor in 1947 and won the solid-state components. Here he joined Walter Brattain
Nobel Prize in Physics in 1956. and Gerald Pearson, excellent laboratory physicists who
Creator of the BCS theory of completed Bardeen's theoretical training. Initially, these
superconductivity, for which he received a second Nobel three scientists reviewed the calculations of field effect
Prize in Physics in 1972. devices (which were already known at that time) and, at
Bardeen's suggestion, wrote a famous article in the
His father was a professor of anatomy and Dean of the Physical Review (No. 71, 1947), in which he pointed out
University of Wisconsin Medical School. He graduated in that the surface states of germanium or silicon
Electrical Engineering from this University in 1929. In the immobilized charge carriers, preventing conduction and
previous year he studied Quantum Mechanics in amplifying the field effect. In December 1947 he
Wisconsin, with professors Van Vleck and Dirac. After discovered the transistor with his colleagues William B.
completing his studies, he worked in Pittsburgh for three Shockley and Walter H. Brattain, for which the three
years (1930-33) as a Geophysicist at the Gulf Research scientists received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1956.
Laboratories, prospecting for oil wells and attending
various seminars on Quantum Mechanics at the University BCS theory The theory is based on the fact that charge
of Pittsburgh. He then went to Princeton University to carriers are not electrons but pairs of electrons (known as
Cooper pairs). Electrons usually repel each other because
they have the same charge. However, when they are
embedded in a crystal lattice (i.e. the microstructure of the
material) it is possible that the energy between them is
negative (attractive) rather than positive (repulsive), so
that pairs are created to minimize the energy.
 Bohr, Niels Henrik David allowed Bohr to explain the spectral lines discovered by
• October 7, 1885, Fraunhoffer and the regularities described by Balmer.
Copenhagen (Denmark).

† November 18, 1962,

Copenhagen (Denmark).

Danish physicist who

explained the internal
structure of the atom, for
which he received the
Nobel Prize in Physics in
where RH, the Rydberg constant4 for the hydrogen atom has a
1922. Creator of an
value of 2.18 × 10–18
excellent School of
Physics in Copenhagen. J. The number n, called the principal quantum number, is
an integer that has values n = 1, 2, 3, . . .
Bohr, based on Rutherford's previous theories and on
Planck's quantum theory, enunciated in 1913 a new model
of the hydrogen atom with the following postulates: 1) the
atom has a certain number of stationary orbits, in which
the electrons do not emit energy even if they move; 2) the
electron rotates around the nucleus in such a way that the
centrifugal force exactly balances the electrostatic
attraction of the opposite charges; 3) the angular
momentum of the electron in a stationary state is a
multiple of h/2π, where h is Planck's constant; 4) when an
electron passes from a stationary state of higher energy to
one of lower energy (closer to the nucleus), the difference
in energy is emitted in the form of a quantum of
electromagnetic radiation (a photon). This last postulate
 Coulomb, Charles Augustin the phenomena in question; it establishes a fundamental
• June 14, 1736, Angoulême, principle: the Earth's magnetic field is uniform in a given
Charente (France). place, its action on a magnet is reduced to a torque
proportional to the sine of the angle that the magnet forms
† August 23, 1806, Paris with its equilibrium direction. He made a series of
(France). measurements on the oscillations of magnets suspended
from thin threads, inventing a torsion balance. In 1785 his
French physicist and military
first fundamental memoir on electricity appeared, in which
engineer who formulated the
he demonstrated the law that bears his name. This meant
law of forces between static
that the forces of electrical attraction responded to laws
electrical charges that bears
similar to those of gravitational attraction discovered by
his name.
Newton. The Coulomb balance made it possible to
He joined the engineering corps at a very young age and measure exactly the electrical mass, that is, the charge of
built Fort Bourbon in Martinique. In his first works as an a body (this magnitude had been introduced into Physics
engineering officer he laid the foundations for the by Franklin, but in a semi-qualitative way). Cavendish had
resistance of materials and Geotechnics (1773). A skilled discovered Coulomb's law before him, but he never
experimenter and profound theorist, although the published his results, which were not discovered until half
mathematical apparatus of his works is simple, his a century after his death. Between 1786 and 1788 he
memoirs almost always follow this order: theoretical published some works in which he analyzed the
preliminaries based on previous knowledge, working approximate solution for the distribution of electricity in
hypothesis, description of the apparatus, of the systems of conductors. In this way he laid the foundations
experiments, numerical results, theoretical consequences for electrostatics.
of the same, new experiments inspired by the newly
COULUMB'S LAW
acquired facts... and so on until the final conclusions and
practical applications. In 1777 he published Recherches The electric force between two point charges also
sur la meilleure manière de fabriquer les aiguilles depends on the amount of charge in each body, which will
aimantées (Research on the best way to make be denoted by qo Q. To study this dependence, Coulomb
magnetized needles), which does not contain practical divided a charge into two equal parts by placing a small
recipes as its title seems to indicate, but a deep study of charged spherical conductor in contact with an identical
but uncharged sphere; by symmetry, the charge was Drude, Paul
shared equally between the two spheres. (Note the • July 12, 1863, Brunswick
essential role that the principle of conservation of charge (Germany).
plays in this procedure.) In this way, he could obtain one-
half, one-quarter, etc., of any initial charge. He discovered † July 5, 1906, Berlin
that the forces that two point charges q1 and q2 exerted on (Germany).
each other were proportional to each charge, so they were
German physicist who
also proportional to their product q1q2.
developed a theory of
The magnitude of the electric force between two point electrical conduction in metals.
charges is directly proportional to the product of the
In 1900 he was appointed
charges, and inversely proportional to the square of the
Professor and Director of the Physics Laboratory at the
distance separating them.
University of Giessen. Here he worked on the electronic
theory of metals, pointing out that electrical conduction is
due to electrons moving through atoms in a way
analogous to how ions carry current in electrolytes.

The theory had been shown by Riecke, H. TO. Lorentz, G.

Wiedemann and others, but what Drude added was to
prove that the quotient between the thermal and electrical
conductivity of metals is proportional to their absolute
temperature.
 Orange, New Jersey. Since 1955 it has been an American
national museum. In four years he obtained three hundred
patents, among which we must highlight: the carbon
Edison, Thomas Alva microphone, which improved Graham Bell's telephone and
made its use practical; his favorite invention, the
• February 11, 1847, Milan, phonograph (1877), which could record sound on a tin foil
Ohio (USA). cylinder; the incandescent lamp or light bulb (1879), which
made possible the development of electric lighting, which
† October 18, 1931, West until then had been done using the electric arc. It was a
Orange. New Jersey (USA). great success, so he soon began to work on perfecting
light bulbs and dynamos to generate the necessary
American inventor, the
electric current.
most prolific of all time with
more than 1,100 patents to This is why in 1880 he founded the Edison Electric
his name. His inventions Illuminating Company, which built the first American
have left their mark of genius, becoming essential in power station in February 1882, on Holborn Viaduct in
today's society, such as the light bulb, the phonograph, London, and later, in September, opened the Pearl
the kinetoscope, the electric accumulator and the Street power station in New York. Both plants were
microphone. direct current; however, years later the use of direct
current was displaced by alternating current, which was
Born into a humble family, he only attended school for
developed in the USA. U.S. Engineer George
three months in Port Huron, Michigan; his mother provided
Westinghouse, based on the purchase of Nikola Tesla's
him with an elementary education and he had no
patents.
university training. It represents the classic tale that
Americans love so much, of the man who made himself EDISON EFFECT.
from a poor boy, without education or influence, and who
acquired fame and fortune through his intelligence and Thermionic emission, formerly known as the Edison effect,
work. In 1876 he founded his famous laboratory in Menlo is the flow of charged particles called ions from a metal (or
Park, New Jersey, which was to become an invention metal oxide) surface caused by vibrational thermal energy
factory. Because of this he was nicknamed the Wizard of that produces an electrostatic force that pushes electrons
Menlo Park. In 1887 he moved his laboratories to West towards the surface. The charge of the thermions (which
can be positive or negative) will be the same as the
charge of the metal or metal oxide. The effect increases • March 14, 1879, Ulm (Germany).
dramatically with increasing temperature (1000–3000)K.
The branch of science that studies this phenomenon is † April 18, 1955, Princeton, New Jersey (USA).
thermionics. German-Swiss-American physicist who in 1905 developed
the theory of the photoelectric effect using Planck's
quanta, for which he received the Nobel Prize in Physics
in 1921. He is considered one of the most important
physicists of all time for the development of the theory of
relativity.

In 1901 he worked in a patent office in Bern and there he

began to develop his theories. In 1905 he received his
doctorate from the University of Zurich and published four
revolutionary articles that same year. In the second article,
On a Heuristic Viewpoint Concerning the Production and
Transformation of Light (On a heuristic viewpoint
concerning the production and transformation of light), he
proposed a quantum theory of light, stating that it is
transmitted in packets (Planck quanta) of energy
proportional to their frequency, which behave like
particles, despite the wave-like character of the whole.
Applying this theory, he explained the photoelectric effect.
The importance of this research was that, for the first time,
Planck's theories, developed five years earlier, were
applied to physical phenomena that could not be
explained by classical physics. For this fact Einstein
received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1921.
EINSTEIN, Albert
PHOTOELECTRIC EFFECT
The photoelectric effect is the emission of electrons when number of his scientific discoveries and their practical
light hits a surface. consequences. His discovery of electrical induction is the
origin of Electrical
This effect has many practical applications (Figure 38.2). Engineering.
To escape from a surface, the electron must absorb
enough energy from the incident radiation to overcome the In Chemistry he devised
attraction of the positive ions of the surface material. This methods for liquefying gases,
attraction produces a potential energy barrier, which discovering benzene (1825)
confines the electrons within the material. Imagine this and electrolysis (1833).
barrier as a rounded curb separating vehicular asphalt Faraday coined the names for
from a raised sidewalk. The edge will keep a slowly rolling electrolyte and electrodes:
soccer ball on the asphalt. But if the ball is kicked hard anode and cathode. A good part of his scientific activity
enough, it can roll up the bank, and the work done against was dedicated specifically to the study of the relationships
gravitational attraction (the gain in gravitational potential between magnetism and electricity. In fact, after the
energy) is equal to its loss of kinetic energy. discovery of electromagnetism by the Dane Oersted in
1820, who managed to deflect a magnetic needle by
passing an electric current through a conductor, Faraday
set out to carry out the inverse phenomenon, that is, to
generate an electric current through the action of a
magnet. A year after Oersted's discovery, Faraday
FARADAY, Michael devised a device consisting of a rigid wire that could rotate
freely on one of its ends, which acted as a fulcrum, while
the other end was immersed in a vat of mercury. Placing a
• 22 September 1791, Newington, Surrey.
magnet with the poles surrounding the wire and causing
England. current to flow through the wire or rod would cause it to
rotate. Finally, on August 29, 1831, he received the just
† August 25, 1867, Hampton Court, London, England. reward for his efforts. Faraday had a soft iron ring of about
15 cm. in diameter and wound two coils of conducting wire
British physicist and chemist who made great contributions
on opposite sides of the ring. One of the coils was
to Chemistry. Gifted with great aptitude for laboratory
connected to a battery by means of a switch and the other
experimentation, few scientists can equal him in the
had a galvanometer. With this arrangement, Faraday
surprisingly observed that either opening or closing the wound around a section of the iron ring surrounding both
switch of the first coil, and only at that precise moment, wires. Since the currents in the wires are in opposite
produced a deflection of the galvanometer that was in the directions and of equal magnitude, there is no magnetic
other coil. He had thus achieved his goal of generating an field around the wires and the net magnetic flux through
electric current. In an attempt to explain this phenomenon, the detector coil is zero. However, if the return current in
and with very little training in mathematics, Faraday wire 2 changes, that is, if the two currents are not equal,
imagined that magnetic lines of force were acting. magnetic field lines exist around the pair of wires. (This
can occur, for example, if the appliance gets wet, allowing
In 1861, Faraday had to abandon his experiments a current to leak to ground.) Consequently, the net
because he was physically and intellectually tired, and he magnetic flux through the sensitive coil is no more than
retired to live in Hampton Court, a town near London,
where he died on August 25, 1867.

Faraday's Law

This statement can be written mathematically as Faraday's

law of induction.

zero.

However, if the return current in wire 2 changes, that is, if

Some applications of Faraday's law the two currents are not equal, magnetic field lines exist
The ground fault circuit interrupter (GFI) is an interesting around the pair of wires. (This can occur, for example, if
safety device that protects home appliance users from the appliance gets wet, allowing a current to leak to
electrical shock. Its operation uses Faraday's law, wire 1 ground.) Consequently, the net magnetic flux through the
runs from the power outlet on the wall to the appliance to sensitive coil is no more than zero. Since household
be protected and wire 2 runs from the appliance back to current is alternating current (meaning its direction is
the power outlet on the wall. A detection coil has been continually reversing), the magnetic flux through the
detector coil changes with time, inducing an emf in it. This the middle of the storm, Franklin brought his hand close to
induced emf is used to trip a circuit breaker that cuts off the (metal) key, to which the silk thread was tied and a
the current before it reaches a dangerous level. spark jumped in the same way that happened in Leyden
jars (primitive capacitors that
were used at that time to do
experiments on static
electricity); in addition, he was
able to charge a Leyden jar
from the key in the same way
that he charged it with an
electrostatic rubbing machine.

FRANKLIN, Benjamin

• January 17, 1706, Boston, Massachusetts (USA).

† April 17, 1790, Philadelphia (USA).

American statesman and scientist who is credited with the

invention of the lightning rod and the theory of the single
fluid in electricity.

His first investigations date back to 1747, in which he

studied the marvelous effect of pointed bodies that can
also communicate electrical fire to other bodies and
snatch it from them.

He decided to try an experiment, which would make him

immortal, in a spectacular way; he flew a kite during a
storm in 1752 that had a pointed wire at its upper end, he
hooked it with silk thread that would be charged with the
electricity above, assuming there was any somewhere; in
 observed physiological phenomena, arose the
construction of the first battery, or device to produce direct
electric current, called Volta's battery.

His name is still associated

today with electricity in the
Galvani Luigi terms galvanism and
(1737-1798) galvanization.

This Italian doctor and physicist, famous for his research

into the effects of electricity on the nerves and muscles of
animals, is credited with the discovery of the effects of
electricity on the physiological action in living beings, when
he accidentally discovered, with the collaboration of his
wife Lucia, that the legs of a frog contracted when touched
with an electrically charged object.

In 1773, he presented to the Academy of Bologna a

monograph on his long-standing research work on frogs.

In 1780 he built an electrostatic machine made of two

different metals and natural fluids extracted from a stuffed
frog.

In other experiments he applied current to the nerves of

frogs and observed and studied muscle contractions in the
legs. The latter was what led to widespread speculation
about a supposed relationship between biology, chemistry
and electricity, giving rise to the consideration of electric
current as an issue inserted within the field of medicine.
From his discussions with the other great Italian scientist Gauss, Johann Carl Friedrich
of his time, Alessandro Volta, on the nature of the
• Brunswick, present-day Germany, 1777 describing the exact way to develop a complete theory of
them from their
† Göttingen, id., 1855 representations in the x, y
German mathematician, physicist and astronomer. Born plane) that marked the starting
into a humble family, Karl Friedrich Gauss showed point of modern algebraic
prodigious mathematical ability from a very early age number theory.
(according to legend, at the age of three he interrupted his His fame as a mathematician
father when he was busy with his business accounts to grew considerably that same
point out a calculation error), to the point of being year, when he was able to
recommended to the Duke of Brunswick by his primary accurately predict the orbital
school teachers. behavior of the asteroid
The Duke provided him with financial assistance for his Ceres, sighted for the first time a few months earlier, for
secondary and university studies, which he completed at which he used the method of least squares, developed by
the University of Göttingen between 1795 and 1798. His himself in 1794 and still today the computational basis of
doctoral thesis (1799) was on the fundamental theorem of modern astronomical estimation tools.
algebra (which states that every algebraic equation with In 1807 he accepted the position of professor of
complex coefficients has equally complex solutions), astronomy at the Göttingen Observatory, a position he
which Gauss proved. held for the rest of his life. Two years later, his first wife,
In 1801 Gauss published a work destined to decisively whom he had married in 1805, died giving birth to their
influence the shaping of mathematics for the rest of the third child; he later remarried and had three more children.
century, and particularly in the field of number theory, the During those years Gauss matured his ideas on non-
Arithmetical Disquisitions. Among its many discoveries Euclidean geometry, that is, the construction of a logically
are: the first proof of the law of quadratic reciprocity; an coherent geometry that would dispense with Euclid's
algebraic solution to the problem of how to determine postulate of parallel lines; although he did not publish his
whether a regular polygon with n sides can be constructed conclusions, he was more than thirty years ahead of the
geometrically (unsolved since the time of Euclid); an later works of Lobachewski and Bolyai.
exhaustive treatment of the theory of congruent numbers; Gauss's law is about the following. Given any general
and numerous results with numbers and functions of a charge distribution, it is surrounded by an imaginary
complex variable (which he would return to in 1831, surface that encloses it and then the electric field is
observed at different points on that imaginary surface. German physicist. A skilled experimenter, he built a
Gauss's law is a relationship between the field at all points resonant circuit with a spark chamber with which he
on the surface and the total charge it encloses. discovered in 1885 the electromagnetic waves predicted
by Maxwell's equations, also demonstrating the reflection
properties of these waves and measuring their
wavelength.

Hertz discovered that the presence of ultraviolet light

changed the voltage at which discharges occur between
two metal electrodes. The phenomenon was later known
as the photoelectric effect, because light and other forms
of high-frequency electromagnetic energy caused metals
to emit electrons (however, the ramifications and studies
of this effect would be done by others).

In 1888, at the suggestion of his former teacher Helmholtz,

he set up an oscillating electrical circuit that discharged
between two metal spheres separated by an air gap. Each
time the potential reached a maximum in one direction or
the other, a spark jumped between the spheres. With the
oscillating spark, Maxwell's equations predicted that
electromagnetic waves could be generated; each
oscillation should produce a wave, so the radiation would
be of extremely long wavelength. Hertz used a simple coil
HERTZ, Heinrich Rudolf ending in two small spheres as a detection device to
detect the possible presence of such radiation; he
observed that when a spark jumped in the oscillating
• February 22, 1857, circuit, small sparks also jumped between the spheres of
Hamburg (Germany). the detector coil; by placing the detector coil in various
places in the laboratory room, he was able to explain the
† January 1, 1894, appearance of the waves and calculate their wavelength,
Bonn (Germany).
which he found to be 66 cm, which was a million times magazine: Sturgeon's Annals of Electricity. Two years
longer than the visible later he discovered the fact that there is a limiting value for
wavelength. He found that these the magnetization of a piece of iron and determined its
waves had electric and numerical value for various values of the excitation
magnetic field components. In current.
this way he demonstrated the
existence of electromagnetic In 1840 he had managed to obtain the formula that bears
waves that Maxwell had his name (Joule's law), which determines the power
suggested in 1873. dissipated in an electrical resistance, indicating that the
amount of heat released was proportional to the
resistance of the conductor and to the square of the
electric current.

After many experiments, in 1847, he presented a Memoir

in which he calculated the mechanical equivalent of heat.
To calculate it, he used weights that, as they fell, moved
paddles inside a small container of water (calorimeter),
measuring with a thermometer the increase in the
JOULE, James Prescott temperature of the water and also the speed of the
• 24 December 1818, Salford, Lancanshire weights when they reached the ground. Thus the
mechanical energy lost was the difference between the
(England).
initial potential energy of the weights and their kinetic
† October 11, 1889, Sale, Cheshire (England). energy at the end of the fall.

British physicist who determined the mechanical The mechanical equivalent of heat was obtained by
equivalent of heat and the principle of conservation of dividing said energy by the amount of heat released.
energy. He developed the expression for the electrical
JOULE'S LAW
power dissipated in an electrical resistance.
"The amount of heat developed by an electric current
He began performing electrical experiments at a very
passing through a conductor is directly proportional to the
young age; in fact, at the age of eighteen (in 1837) he built
an electromagnetic machine that he described in the
resistance, the square of the intensity of the current and
the time that the current lasts."

APPLICATIONS:

The heating of conductors is a very important

phenomenon due to its multiple applications such as:

ELECTRICAL LIGHTING

Lamps, bulbs or ampoules called incandescent lamps are

used for lighting.

DOMESTIC APPLICATIONS

Many practical applications of the Joule effect are found in

the construction of household appliances, such as irons, KIRCHHOFF, Gustav Robert
kettles, ovens, room and water heaters, hair dryers, and • March 12, 1824, Königsberg
curling irons. (Prussia).
INDUSTRIAL APPLICATIONS † October 17, 1887, Berlin
The Joule effect enables the operation of industrial (Germany).
equipment such as welding machines, electric furnaces for German physicist who
smelting and metallurgy, and spot welders. The latter, demonstrated, in 1845, while still
widely used in the automotive industry and in bodywork, a student, the laws of electrical
advantageously replaces the riveting system. circuits that bear his name. He
discovered, with Bunsen,
spectral analysis, which allows a
chemical element to be identified by the colour of its flame.

In 1845, while still a student, he extended Ohm's law to

two-dimensional conductors and demonstrated the laws
that bear his name and that relate currents, voltages and
resistances in electrical circuits. In 1848, and based, like At any node, the sum of the currents entering that node is
Ohm, on the work of Fourier (theory of heat), he equal to the sum of the currents leaving it. Equivalently, the
established the general theory of the passage of electricity sum of all currents passing through the node is equal to
in three-dimensional conductors. zero.

In 1854 he was appointed Professor of Physics at

Heidelberg. At this university he demonstrated (1859) the
fundamental law of electromagnetic radiation for all
material bodies. The relationship between the emissive
and absorption power for each radiation is a universal This law is also called Kirchhoff's second law, Kirchhoff's
function that depends only on temperature and
loop law or Kirchhoff's mesh law (it is common to use the
wavelength. Kirchhoff made this discovery while working
acronym KLV to refer to this law).
with Bunsen, when they were studying the optical
spectrum of chemical elements, which would give rise to In a closed loop, the sum of all the voltage drops is equal
what would later be called spectral analysis (1860). They to the total voltage supplied. Equivalently, the algebraic
demonstrated that when a chemical element is heated to sum of the electric potential differences in a loop is equal
incandescence it emits a light with a characteristic color; to zero.
when this light is passed through a prism, a pattern of
wavelengths specific to each element is produced. Using
this technique, Kirchhoff and Bunsen identified elements
such as cesium (1860) and rubidium (1861).

In 1874 he obtained the chair of Mathematical Physics at

the University of Berlin. He also made important LENZ, Heinrich Friedich Emil
contributions to elasticity, mechanical theory of heat and • February 12, 1804, Dorpat (Russia).
optics.
† February 10, 1865, Rome (Italy).
KIRCHHOFF CURRENT LAW
Russian physicist who completed Faraday's law of
This law is also called the node law or Kirchhoff's first law magnetic induction, pointing out that the induced current
and it is common to use the acronym KCL to refer to this opposes the inducing flux. He showed that electrical
law. Kirchhoff's current law tells us that: resistance varied with temperature.
After completing his high school studies with excellent He wrote an excellent Manual of Physics in 1864. He was
grades (1820), Lenz entered the University of Dorpat to tutor to the children of Tsar Nicholas I and died during a
study Physics and Chemistry. In 1828 he was elected trip to Italy.
junior scientific assistant at the St. Petersburg Academy of
Sciences.

His research into electromagnetism began in 1831, shortly

after the discovery of Faraday's law, and continued until
1858. He is credited with the law that bears his name, thus
completing Faraday's principle of induction, which states Lenz's law
that a current induced by a variable magnetic field always
The induced current in a coil is in the direction that creates
produces effects that oppose the inducing field.
a magnetic field that opposes the change in magnetic flux
The law includes the principle of reversibility of electrical in the area enclosed by the coil.
machines, which can operate as generators or motors;
Lenz demonstrated this with the Pixii machine in 1838.
MAXWELL, James Clerk
The same law explains the phenomenon of armature
reaction, discovered by Lenz in 1847 while testing
Stöhrer's machine. In the period 1842-1843, Lenz • June 13, 1831, Edinburgh
determined the law of thermal action of the current (Scotland).
(independent of Joule), demonstrating that the amount of
heat obtained was limited by the chemical process of the † November 5, 1879,
battery. Lenz also demonstrated the increase in electrical Cambridge (England).
resistance of a metallic conductor when its temperature is
Scottish mathematician and
raised. Lenz was a professor of Physics at the Naval
physicist considered the
Military School (1835-1841), the Artillery Academy (1848-
father of electromagnetism,
1861), the Central Pedagogical Institute (1851-1859) and
having given mathematical
at the University of St. Petersburg (1836-1865). At this
form to Faraday's lines of force. He predicted with his
university he was Dean of the Department of Physics and
equations the existence of electromagnetic waves.
Chemistry and later Rector of the University.
He was born in Edinburgh on 13 June 1831, just eleven to Ampère's formulas. Also in this work the first studies of
weeks after Faraday discovered the principle of the electromagnetic theory of light were made.
electromagnetic induction. Maxwell spent his childhood at
the family country house in Glenlair. Gifted with great In 1856 Maxwell was appointed to the chair of Natural
talent for mathematics, at the age of fifteen he contributed, Philosophy (now Physics) at Marischal College,
with an original work, to the design of oval curves, which Aberdeen, where he remained for three years. While at
he presented to the Royal Society of Edinburgh. He this centre, the fourth Adams Prize was awarded in
studied at the University of Edinburgh and then went to Cambridge for research into the motion and stability of
Trinity College, Cambridge to study Mathematics, where Saturn's rings. This problem had been studied by Laplace
in 1787, and had various difficulties; in fact, three
he was taught by George Stokes. In 1854 he was second
hypotheses were proposed: that the rings were solid, fluid
wrangler (a wrangler is a student who obtains honours in
(liquids or gases) or made up of independent material
the Cambridge Mathematics examinations; number 1 was
particles.
his classmate Routh, known for his contributions to the
theory of stability in the field of what is now known as Maxwell, after performing delicate calculations, pointed out
Control Engineering). The following year, the year of his that only the third hypothesis was compatible with the
graduation (December 1855), he wrote his first article on stability of the rings, and then declared that the rings were
electromagnetism, entitled On Faraday´s Lines made up of a multitude of low-mass satellites.
of Force (On Faraday's Lines of Force). Maxwell thus won the Adams Prize in 1857, as well as
great fame as a researcher. Maxwell made advances in
This work was based on articles published in 1845 and
almost every field of Physics. In Optics, between 1856 and
1847 by William Thomson (Lord Kelvin), as well as on the
1860, he demonstrated the three-color hypothesis, which
research of Faraday. In this work Maxwell developed the
states that any color can be obtained by mixing the three
mathematical analogy between the lines that represent an
fundamental colors (red, green and blue) in various
electric or magnetic field and the flow of an
proportions. Maxwell managed to project color images by
incomprehensible fluid. In his analogy, the intensity of an
mixing three photographs obtained with filters for each of
electric field corresponded to the speed of a fluid, without
the three fundamental colors. This hypothesis, based on
inertia, but subject to retarding forces, thus obtaining a
the fact that the eye only has receptors for these three
mechanical analogy. In the last part of this important
colours, became the basis of colour television a century
memoir, Maxwell shows how Faraday's conclusions lead
later. For this work on colours he received the Rumford
Medal in 1860.
Between 1860 and 1865 Maxwell was appointed electromagnetism. For these contributions, he is
Professor at King's College London. During this period considered, along with Galileo, Newton and Einstein, as
he published his most important works. In 1860 he applied one of those scientists on whose shoulders we stand to
statistics to gases, demonstrating that the energy of see the most distant horizons of nature. Unfortunately for
molecules follows a non-uniform distribution law, contrary science, he died of cancer before he was fifty, when he
to what was previously believed. To make the was at the height of his intellectual power.
demonstration he used a hypothetical intelligent being
Maxwell's equations represent the laws of electricity and
called Maxwell's imp. This law was generalized by Ludwig
magnetism that have already been explained, but they
E. Boltzmann, which is why it came to be called c-
have important additional consequences. For simplicity,
Boltzmann's law.
Maxwell's equations are presented as they apply to
In 1871 he was elected to the new Cavendish Chair at free space, that is, in the absence of any dielectric or
Cambridge, which had just been created with the support magnetic material. The four equations are:
of the Duke of Devonshire. Maxwell began designing the
Cavendish Laboratory and supervised its construction. In
1879 he published Cavendish's electrical experiments
(Electrical Researches) which had not been published
until then, in which he demonstrated that this eccentric
character had anticipated his work by fifty years. Maxwell's
most important contribution was made in the period 1864-
1873, when he gave mathematical form to Faraday's lines
of force, culminating in the publication of the work
Electricity and Magnetism, in 1873, where he
definitively presented his famous equations that
synthesize electromagnetic phenomena, and formulated
the hypothesis of the electromagnetic nature of light. He
predicted that it would be possible to create
electromagnetic waves in the laboratory (which Heinrich
Hertz would discover in 1888). Maxwell's work in electricity
and magnetism brought these two seemingly separate
disciplines together into a complete theory covering all of
 that bears his name, which he included in a memorandum
written for the patent department of Bell Telephone
Laboratories (unpublished) dated November 3, 1926,
entitled Design of Finite Networks for Uniform
Frequency Characteristics. This theorem first appeared
in 1937 in the textbook Communication Engineering,
NORTON, Edward Lawry by Professor W. L. Everitt. It is a dual theorem of
• July 29, 1898, Rockland, Maine (USA). Thévenin's, and indicates that any network can be
replaced by a current generator in parallel with an
† January 28, 1983, Chatham, New Jersey (USA).
admittance.
American electrical engineer who worked at Bell
Laboratories and is credited with introducing the concept
of the current generator Daniel E. Noble for the study of OERSTED, Hans Christian
electrical circuits. He is also credited with stating the • August 14, 1777, Rudkobing, Langeland (Denmark).
Norton theorem.
He was stationed in the American Navy during World War † March 9, 1851, Copenhagen (Denmark).
I.
Danish physicist who discovered electromagnetism by
After the war he studied at the University of Maine and observing that an electric current deflected a magnetized
later at MIT, where he completed his engineering studies. needle or compass.

Electric in 1922. He joined Western Electric that same Oersted was the son of a pharmacist and came from a
year. When the company's research laboratories were large family, so he had to provide for himself in order to
merged with those of ATT to form Bell Telephone get a school education. His teacher was a German barber,
Laboratories in 1925, Norton joined the new company, who taught him the rudiments of arithmetic; the village
where he remained for the rest of his life. His areas of mayor taught him French and German, and a baker's
work were: network theory, relays, acoustic networks, fire apprentice taught him to draw. In the spring of 1794,
control (during World War II) and guided missiles. Christian Oersted and his brother Anders went to
Copenhagen, where they were able to prepare for the
He had more than 20 patents in the above research fields entrance exam for university studies over the course of six
(one of them was related to the guidance system for Nike- months. At the University of Copenhagen he studied
type missiles). Norton is known worldwide for the theorem Astronomy, Pharmacy and Physics. The subject that most
influenced Oersted in his studies was Immanuel Kant's the rest of his life. Oersted was an excellent teacher and
philosophy on the unity of nature, which encouraged him an outstanding scientist. He was also a great popularizer
to study Physics, which he considered to be the key to of science, giving lectures and writing in popular
understanding all human life. magazines. Oersted's scientific works in those years
included topics in Chemistry, Electrochemistry, and the
In 1797 Oersted completed his pharmacy studies with Physics of Fluids. But Oersted's great contribution to
good grades; two years later he obtained his doctorate science is the discovery of Electromagnetism.
with a thesis in Latin entitled Dissertatio de forma
Metaphysices elementaris naturae externae In 1820, during a practical explanation in his university
(Dissertation on the Elementary Metaphysical Forms of class, he came up with the idea of stretching a wire
External Natures). carrying an electric current over a magnetized needle and
parallel to its direction, observing that the needle deviated
After his graduation, Oersted ran a pharmacy for a time, and stopped in a direction perpendicular to the wire; when
and in 1801 continued his training in Germany and he reversed the direction of the current, the needle turned
France, visiting scientists and philosophers in Göttingen, halfway and pointed in the opposite direction, although still
Berlin, Weimar and Paris. Volta had announced his at a right angle to the wire. This constitutes the first
famous discovery of the battery in 1800, which caused demonstration of the relationship between magnetism and
astonishment in the scientific community. Oersted, using electricity, so it can also be considered the origin of the
Volta's ideas, built a battery, which gave him great fame science of Electromagnetism.
and reputation, and he demonstrated its operation at the
scientific meetings he attended. These experiments were published in Latin on 21 July
1820 in Copenhagen (Experimenta circa effectum
In 1804 he returned to Denmark, beginning a series of conflictus electrici in acum magneticam,
lectures on scientific subjects that brought him great
Experiments on the effect of an electric current on a
popularity.
magnetic needle), and were publicised throughout Europe,
In 1806, the University of Copenhagen offered him a causing an explosion of research activity among all the
position as extraordinary professor of Physics and scientists of the time, who were testing Oersted's
Chemistry, and thus began Oersted's great scientific experiment. New theories and practical results soon
career. In 1824 he founded the Society for the Promotion emerged. The great French mathematician Ampère would
of Science. In 1829 he was appointed Director of the give a quantitative explanation of Electromagnetism on
Polytechnic Institute of Copenhagen, a position he held for September 18, 1820, at the Academy of Sciences in Paris.
Oersted's name became known in the scientific world and German physicist who discovered the law that bears his
in 1822 and 1823 he made a trip throughout Europe, name, relating the electrical resistance of a metal to
where he was received with all honours. In Berlin he met voltage and current.
Seebeck, who had discovered a new way of producing
electricity (Thermoelectricity) and showed him all his Ohm was the son of a locksmith and as a teenager he
experiments. In Paris he associated with the leading men helped his father repair locks and mechanisms, which
of science: Arago, Gay-Lussac, Ampère, Fresnel and would be of great importance for Ohm himself to build
Dulong. Ampère had developed Electrodynamics from the many of his laboratory equipment years later. In 1805 he
work of entered the University of Erlangen, graduating as a Doctor
in 1811.
Oersted. Arago had invented an electromagnet, Fresnel
was interested in those years in the study of the nature of His great dream was to remain at the university as a
light. In Britain he visited Humphrey Davy, who introduced professor of Mathematics, but he did not have the
him to members of the Royal Society and he also met opportunity to do so, so after spending a few years giving
private lessons, in 1817 he moved to Cologne to teach
his assistant Faraday, who a few years later discovered
Mathematics and Physics at a private high school. Ohm
the principle of electromagnetic induction. Oersted was a
was a good teacher and respected by his students (one of
teacher in Copenhagen for almost fifty years and
them was Dirichlet, who would achieve great fame as a
contributed greatly to transforming the Danish education
Mathematician). After eight years of teaching at Ohm High
system. It should also be noted that Oersted succeeded,
School, he was dissatisfied because he felt he was
in 1825, in obtaining impure metallic aluminium by
teaching too many students, many of whom had little
chemical means, ahead of Wöhler (the first to obtain it
desire to learn. His ambition was to obtain an appointment
pure). Their methods were impractical, so aluminium was
at the university. For this I had to present some important
initially as expensive as gold, until years later Charles
research work. He chose the new field of electric current
Martin Hall and Paul Héroult developed the electrolytic
initiated by Volta. Due to his poverty, he had to build his
method.
own laboratory equipment, and in 1827 he discovered
Ohm's law, which explains the relationship between
OHM, Georg Simon electrical resistance, voltage and current in a circuit, which
• March 16, 1787, Erlangen, Bavaria (Germany). unfortunately did not help him obtain the university
position he so desired. In the prologue to his book, which
† July 7, 1854, Munich (Germany). he entitled Mathematical Theory of the Galvanic
Circuit (Die galvanische Kette, mathematisch He graduated in 1900 from Trinity College, Cambridge
bearbitet), he reflects his bitterness thus: "The and was a student of J. J. Thomson in the Cavendish
circumstances in which I have lived up to now have Laboratory.
certainly not been the most favourable to encourage me to
In 1906 he moved to the United States where he was
continue my studies; the indifference of the public
hired as Professor of Physics at Princeton, and remained
dampens my spirit and threatens to extinguish my love for
at this university until 1913. During these years he studied
science." Ohm developed his theory based on Fourier's
the electronic emission of hot metals; thanks to this
work on the analytical theory of heat published in 1822, as
phenomenon
Ohm believed that the flow of electricity from higher to
lower voltage was analogous to the flow of heat from Edison had detected a passage of electric current in his
higher to lower temperature, and he also considered that lamp and it had been explained by Fleming in his diode
electric currents and heat flows depended on the valve. However, it was Richardson who developed in
conductivities of the metals through which they passed. detail the theory of the emission of electrons by an
His research was well received outside his country and he incandescent filament, which is named Richardson's law in
had to wait until 1849, when he was appointed Professor his honour. This law was very important in the
of Physics at the University of Munich, so that the last development of valves for radio and television. In 1913 he
years of his life were spent at the height of his ambition. In returned to England and in 1914 he was appointed
1881, at the International Electricity Exhibition in Paris, Professor of Physics at King's College London, where he
twenty-seven years after his death, the ohm was adopted taught until his retirement in 1944. In 1928 he received the
as the unit of electrical resistance in honor of his memory. Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on the emission of
electrons by hot metals. He was knighted in 1939.
RICHARDSON, Sir Owen Williams
• April 26, 1879, Dewsbury, Yorkshire (England). TESLA, Nikola
† February 15, 1959, Alton, Hampshire (England). • July 9, 1856, Smiljam Lika (Croatia).

British physicist who discovered the law of emission of † January 7, 1943, New York (USA).
electrons produced by an incandescent filament and which Croatian-American electrical engineer with a gift of great
was important for the development of electronic valves. inventiveness. He is credited with the patent for the
Nobel Prize in Physics in 1928. polyphase asynchronous motor. He was advisor to G.
Westinghouse, who bought a large number of patents for Tesla was involved in the project for the power station that
his company. He carried out experiments with high voltage was installed at Niagara Falls (1896) and which
and frequency signals. represented the triumph of alternating current over direct
current in the United States.
He studied Engineering at the Polytechnic of Graz
(Austria), and later, Mathematics and Physics at the He worked in all fields of Electrical Engineering:
University of Prague. Tesla worked for a short time as a generators, motors, transformers, etc. He developed high
draftsman at the Central Telegraph Office in Budapest, voltage and built high frequency alternators for the
and then as a Telephone Engineer. In 1883 he went to emerging wireless telegraphy (radio). In 1893 he made
Paris, where he worked for the Continental Edison demonstrations with high voltage and frequency signals
Company. produced by the so-called Tesla coils. In 1900 he built a
large antenna in Colorado to conduct experiments on the
In 1884 he emigrated to the United States and worked at transportation of electrical energy over long distances by
the power plant that the Edison company had opened two means of waves. He conducted research on the use of oil
years earlier in New York. In 1887 he set up his own as an insulator, the construction of condensers, and
business to carry out his own ideas; in the same year he others. He was awarded the AIEE Edison Medal in 1917.
developed polyphase systems, discovered the rotating In 1975 he was elected to the American Inventors Hall of
field, invented the asynchronous motor (16 May 1888) and Fame. He is one of four engineer/inventors whose
provided the solution to the problem of transporting photographs appeared on various stamps issued by the
electrical energy. He designed three-phase alternators U.S. Postal Service. US on September 21, 1983 (the
and transformers. In July others were Edwin H. Armstrong, Philo T. Farnsworth and
In 1888 he sold his patents to the Westinghouse company, Charles Proteus Steinmetz).
collaborating with this company as a scientific advisor. The
company began promoting polyphase distribution systems
in 1892. At the 1893 Chicago World's Fair, the THEVENIN, Leon Charles
Westinghouse Company made a show of alternating • March 30, 1857, Meaux (France).
current distribution, installing 24 500 watt two-phase
alternators. † September 21, 1926, Paris (France).

CV, 60 Hz to illuminate the Exhibition.

French engineer who worked in the French Telegraph Institute. The following year he discovered the
Corps and developed the circuit theorem that bears his electrophorus; this device consisted of a metal disc
name. covered with ebonite and another metal disc with an
electrically insulated handle; by rubbing the ebonite disc
He studied at the Polytechnic. In 1878 he joined the (for example, with a chamois), it acquires a negative
Telegraph Corps as an Engineer, a position he held until electrical charge; if the metal disc is placed on top, a
his retirement in 1914. During this period he normalized positive electrical charge appears on the lower surface of
the construction of overhead telegraph lines in France. In the disc and a negative one on the upper surface; this
In 1896 he was appointed Director of the Higher negative charge on the upper surface can be carried to
Professional School, where he taught Mathematics and earth and lost; and by repeating the process we can
Electrical Engineering. His famous theorem was published create a large charge on the disc that we hold with the
in 1883 in Annales Telegraphiques and later presented handle of the upper one. This charge storage device
to the Academy of Sciences (Comptes Rendus de l replaced the Leyden jar as an electrical charge storage
´Academie des Sciences, December 1883, p. 159). device, and is the basis of electrical capacitors. Professor
Actually, Thévenin's theorem was published in 1853 by H. of Applied Physics at the University of Pavia (1779), in
Helmholtz in Poggendorf's Analen der Physik und 1781 he built an electrometer, improving du Fay's
Chimie. apparatus.

In 1792 he understood the importance of Galvani's

VOLTA, Alessandro discovery and accepted, in principle, his theory. After
• February 18, 1745, Como, Lombardy (Italy). many experiments in his laboratory, in 1793, he
† March 5, 1827, Como (Italy). completely rejected Galvani's theory of animal electricity,
demonstrating that the frog's muscles do not contract if the
Italian physicist and inventor of the electric battery that "arc" that closes the circuit is formed by a single metal. In
bears his name and is a direct current energy source with 1800, using discs of copper, zinc and carbon soaked in a
which the development of electrokinetics began. He also saline solution, he invented his famous battery, which
invented the electrophorus, which was an electrostatic produced a continuous flow of electric current.
machine.

He studied in his hometown, and around 1765, he was WATT, James

attracted to electrical experiments. In 1774 he received his
• January 19, 1736, Greenock, Renfrew (Scotland).
first academic appointment as a professor at the Como
† August 19, 1819, Heathfield, Birmingham (England). Cities became crowded, slums multiplied and agriculture
declined.
Scottish engineer and inventor of the practical steam
engine (1790), beginning the Industrial Revolution. He Watt, in addition to inventing his steam engine, developed
later invented a centrifugal governor to maintain the speed a centrifugal regulator that automatically controlled the
of steam engines constant. steam output of the engine to keep its speed constant.
The Watt regulator or governor has been the foundation
He worked in London in a mechanical workshop where he
of Control or Automatic Engineering, which today is being
learned how to operate machinery and use tools. He
transformed into Robotics.
studied in Glasgow, where he was an assistant to Joseph
Black, with whom he learned the basic principles of
thermodynamics. In 1764 the University of Glasgow had to
repair a Newcomen steam engine, which was used as a
source of mechanical power to drive water pumps. Watt
fixed it with ease, and proposed the inclusion of a
condenser chamber to improve thermal performance. In
1769 Watt had developed a steam engine that was much
more efficient than Newcomen's.

In 1784 he partnered with a capitalist to manufacture

steam engines and sell them to the nascent industry. By
1790, Watt's engine had completely displaced
Newcomen's engine, which is why Watt is considered the
inventor of the steam engine. The historical significance of
this invention is that with the steam engine the industrial
age began; factories could be located away from
watercourses from which power was drawn to move them;
heavy steam-powered machinery could be built and fitted
out in factories, and large-scale production in such
factories made manual and home labour uneconomical,
with the artisan being replaced by the factory worker.