ECN Forum Forums Technical Discussion Electrical Theory and Applications Who invented wire for conducting electricity?

I got one named after me- Atomic no 13

As an aside, is the 'man-in-the-moon' face ( ) upside down when viewed from the antipodes?
Had a 20 minute 'conversation' with She Who Must Be Obeyed tonight driving back from the restaurant, and I can't visualise it.

Alan



[This message has been edited by Alan Belson (edited 06-23-2005).]

I happened to be reading a copy of "Time" magazine, in the local Doctors waiting room where they had a feature on Benjamin Franklin.
Did you know, that not only did he invent the lightning rod, but he also invented the Odometer, the First Subscription Library(where people pay to rent books), the bi-focal glasses and the twin burning wood-burner.
So, the next time you light your fire, put your glasses on and then settle down to read a good library book, don't say you've never heard of Ben Franklin.
Alan mentions a person above:
Charles Swann.
Swann invented the light bulb, not Edison as most of us are led to believe.
Swann was an Englishman, that's probably why popular thought would side with an American like Edison.
{I can feel the knives already}
BTW Alan,
The moon is the same way up as far as I'm aware.
It shouldn't matter, it's all cheese anyway.



[This message has been edited by Trumpy (edited 06-25-2005).]

Mike,
KER-LUNK! - The sound of Denise's model of the Solar System, constructed entirely of potatoes and cocktail sticks, (to show the moon is upside down in NZ), going in the trash can!! I am keeping a low profile.

Franklin was, seriously now, a true genius, who deserves better recognition for his work. 40 years after he was making his world-changing discoveries, the scientific establishment, (Volta, Galvani, Abildgard et al.) were still off on the wrong track entirely about electricity, obsessed with biological electrical 'life forces'. If you notice in the above history, their experiments always seemed to involve some hapless creature getting deaded. This craze for the seeming 'life force' of electricity was reflected in the general culture of the 18th century, and led directly to the creation of Frankenstein's monster- ie the dead, bought to life by mysteries of electricity.
Are we any better, playing with genetics?
Alan

ps. Or potatoes and cocktail sticks!

[This message has been edited by Alan Belson (edited 06-25-2005).]

Swann patented a light bulb, the patent being purchased by Edison, who engineered it into a commercial proposition, along with developing the early electrical supply industry to power the bulbs. I'd say they both deserve credit, in the same way as Daimler conceived a car, Ford built one for the rest of us!
Alan

Yep, but you wouldn't believe how I learned about those when I was a kid! It was from an old episode of Bewitched where Sam zaps Ben Franklin into the present day!

He was involved in fire fighting too:
http://www.ushistory.org/franklin/philadelphia/fire.htm

Ben created an insurance company, and to protect the property he insured he advocated and financially supported the fire department. If you tour the old part of Philadelphia today you will see the familiar "4 handed wrist lock" plaque on many of the homes. (I think Ben Franklin Insurance might still use that symbol today) The story goes, that if your house had a plaque, meaning you were insured by Bens company, the fire fighters would work to put out the fire but if it wasn’t insured they let it burn.

Off thread a bit, but has anyone any info. on Ben Franklin having a pet turkey? I keep finding elusive references to the said bird but no story, except a brief intimation that he took it to London once.

Alan

Elisha Gray?

I don't know, but you've reminded me of the old Bob Newhart sketch about Walter Raleigh.

"Did we get the boatload of turkeys? Yeah, they're running around all over London actually...."

"Well, that's an American holiday, Walt!"

(O.K., so the sketch took some liberties with historical chronology.... )

Alan, if I am not mistaken here, Franklin wanted the turkey as our national bird, not the eagle as we have today.

He apparently thought the turkey had a high intelligence.

Today we have the eagle as our symbol, and the turkeys in congress, go figure.


Dnk...

Sure we do...ever see a $100 bill

HA! Ol' benny has him beat by 0.01¢

I don't know about a pet, but that would explain why Ben wanted the National Emblem to be a turkey: http://www.baldeagleinfo.com/eagle/eagle9.html (see inset, mid-page)



[This message has been edited by Celtic (edited 07-19-2005).]