Written so as to be understood by the non-technical reader who is curious about the origin of all the electrical and electromagnetic devices that surround him, this history also provides a convenient compendium of information for those familiar with the electrical and magnetic fields. The book moves along at a rapid pace, as it must if it is to cover the enormous proliferation of developments that have occurred during the last hundred years or so.The author has struck a workable balance between the human side of his story, introducing those biographical details that help advance it, and its technical side, explaining theories and "how things work" where this seems appropriate. He also achieves a balance in recounting the discovery of basic scientific principles and their technological applications--the myriad of devices and inventions that utilize energy and information in electromagnetic form.Indeed, one of the important themes of the book is the close and reciprocal relationship between science and technology, between theory and practice. Before approximately 1840, the purely scientific investigations of electrical and magnetic phenomena were largely "ad hoc" and observational, and essentially no technology based on them existed. Afterwards, the scientific explorations became more programmatic and mathematical, and technical applications and inventions began to be produced in great abundance. In return, this technology paid its debt to pure science by providing it with a series of measuring instruments and other research devices that allowed it to advance in parallel.Although this book reviews the early discoveries, from the magnetic lodestone and electrostatic amber of antiquity to Galvani's frog's legs and Franklin's kite-and-key of the 1700s, its major emphasis is on the post-1840 developments, as the following chapter titles will confirm: Early Discoveries--Electrical Machines and Experiments with Static Electricity--Voltaic Electricity, Electrochemistry, Electromagnetism, Galvanometers, Ampere, Biot and Savart, Ohm--Faraday and Henry--Direct Current Dynamos and Motors--Improvements in Batteries, Electrostatic Machines, and Other Older Devices--Electrical Instruments, Laws, and Definitions of Units--The Electric Telegraph--The Atlantic Cable--The Telephone--Electric Lighting--Alternating Currents--Electric Traction--Electromagnetic Waves, Radio, Facsimile, and Television--Microwaves, Radar, Radio Relay, Coaxial Cable, Computers--Plasmas, Masers, Lasers, Fuel Cells, Piezoelectric Crystals, Transistors--X-Rays, Radioactivity, Photoelectric Effect, Structure of the Atom, Spectra.

Awarded the Dexter Prize by the Society for the History of Technology, this book offers a comparative history of the evolution of modern electric power systems. It described large-scale technological change and demonstrates that technology cannot be understood unless placed in a cultural context.

A comprehensive and fascinating account of electrical and electronics history Much of the infrastructure of today's industrialized world arose in the period from the outbreak of World War I to the conclusion of World War II. It was during these years that the capabilities of traditional electrical engineering—generators, power transmission, motors, electric lighting and heating, home appliances, and so on—became ubiquitous. Even more importantly, it was during this time that a new type of electrical engineering—electronics—emerged. Because of its applications in communications (both wire-based and wireless), entertainment (notably radio, the phonograph, and sound movies), industry, science and medicine, and the military, the electronics industry became a major part of the economy. Dawn of the Electronic Age?explores how this engineering knowledge and its main applications developed in various scientific, economic, and social contexts, and explains how each was profoundly affected by electrical technologies. It takes an international perspective and a narrative approach, unfolding the story chronologically. Though a scholarly study (with sources of information given in endnotes for engineers and historians of science and technology), the book is intended for the general public.?Ultimately, it tells the story of the development of a new realm of engineering and its widespread applications during the remarkable and tragic period of two world wars and the decades in between.

In the history of electronic communication, the last quarter of the nineteenth century holds a special place, for it was during this period that the telephone, phonograph, electric light, wireless, and cinema were all invented. In When old Technologies Were New, Carolyn Marvin explores how two of these new inventions--the telephone and the electric light--were publicly envisioned at the end of the nineteenth century, as seen in specialized engineering journals and popular media. Marvin pays particular attention to the telephone, describing how it disrupted established social relations, unsettling customary ways of dividing the private person and family from the more public setting of the community. On the lighter side, she describes how people spoke louder when calling long distance, and how they worried about catching contagious diseases over the phone. A particularly powerful chapter deals with telephonic precursors of radio broadcasting--the "Telephone Herald" in New York and the "Telefon Hirmondo" of Hungary--and the conflict between the technological development of broadcasting and the attempt to impose a homogenous, ethnocentric variant of Anglo-Saxon culture on the public. While focusing on the way professionals in the electronics field tried to control the new media, Marvin also illuminates the broader social impact, presenting a wide-ranging, informative, and entertaining account of the early years of electronic media.

“The gold standard for Tesla biography.”—Science “Superb.”—Nature The definitive account of Tesla's life and work Nikola Tesla was a major contributor to the electrical revolution that transformed daily life at the turn of the twentieth century. His inventions, patents, and theoretical work formed the basis of modern AC electricity, and contributed to the development of radio and television. Like his competitor Thomas Edison, Tesla was one of America's first celebrity scientists, enjoying the company of New York high society and dazzling the likes of Mark Twain with his electrical demonstrations. An astute self-promoter and gifted showman, he cultivated a public image of the eccentric genius. Even at the end of his life when he was living in poverty, Tesla still attracted reporters to his annual birthday interview, regaling them with claims that he had invented a particle-beam weapon capable of bringing down enemy aircraft. Plenty of biographies glamorize Tesla and his eccentricities, but until now none has carefully examined what, how, and why he invented. In this groundbreaking book, W. Bernard Carlson demystifies the legendary inventor, placing him within the cultural and technological context of his time, and focusing on his inventions themselves as well as the creation and maintenance of his celebrity. Drawing on original documents from Tesla's private and public life, Carlson shows how he was an "idealist" inventor who sought the perfect experimental realization of a great idea or principle, and who skillfully sold his inventions to the public through mythmaking and illusion. This major biography sheds new light on Tesla's visionary approach to invention and the business strategies behind his most important technological breakthroughs.

An examination of the fierce disputes that arose in Britain in the decades around 1900 concerning patents for electrical power and telecommunications. Late nineteenth-century Britain saw an extraordinary surge in patent disputes over the new technologies of electrical power, lighting, telephony, and radio. These battles played out in the twin tribunals of the courtroom and the press. In Patently Contestable, Stathis Arapostathis and Graeme Gooday examine how Britain's patent laws and associated cultures changed from the 1870s to the 1920s. They consider how patent rights came to be so widely disputed and how the identification of apparently solo heroic inventors was the contingent outcome of patent litigation. Furthermore, they point out potential parallels between the British experience of allegedly patentee-friendly legislation introduced in 1883 and a similar potentially empowering shift in American patent policy in 2011. After explaining the trajectory of an invention from laboratory to Patent Office to the court and the key role of patent agents, Arapostathis and Gooday offer four case studies of patent-centered disputes in Britain. These include the mostly unsuccessful claims against the UK alliance of Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas Edison in telephony; publicly disputed patents for technologies for the generation and distribution of electric power; challenges to Marconi's patenting of wireless telegraphy as an appropriation of public knowledge; and the emergence of patent pools to control the market in incandescent light bulbs.

From the reviews: "... The notes and problems at the end of each chapter are very helpful. [...] In the final analysis, the book is definitely worth owning. [...] It is an extremely well written – but unusual – book that I highly recommend for all physicists." The Physics Teacher