liance in your house. Electricity runs almost every app gs like lights, computers, Without it, you wouldn’t have thin televisions, or refrigerators!
ther atom. ‘electrons’ from one atom to ano Electricity is the flow of energy, or al, food, everything around us, such as met Atoms are the building blocks of with your eyes, but too small for you to see fabric – even you! These atoms are ial microscopes. scientists can see them with spec or smaller particles including a centre Atoms and cells are made up of even called protons, and itively charged particles ‘nucleus’. The nucleus contains pos ly charged trons. Atoms also include negative uncharged particles called neu eus just like the quickly around the nucl particles called electrons, which spin moon around the earth. trons that h make up metal or wire, have elec Some kinds of atoms, like those whic When this happens, ther when they are charged. flow easily from one atom to ano generated, creating electricity! a ‘current’ or ‘flow’ of energy is
. ho discovered W . . electricity?
16th Century
Dr William Gilbert proves many substances are electric and magnetic, not just amber.
Electricity wasn’t discovered by any single person. Lots of people discovered it over a very long time. amber It all began in 600BC when a Greek philosopher rubbed a piece of He found that doing this could attract lightweight things with a fur cloth. to it, like straw or feathers. This made him the first person to discover static electricity, and the first of many to discover how to make electricity!
eek The Gr r o word f ber is am on’ ‘electr
James Watt invents the steam engine. The Watt is named after him.
1769
Andre Marie Ampere is the first to explain how the flow of electricity works. The unit of electric current, the ‘Amp’ is named after him.
1820s
Thomas Edison invents the first light bulb. He also invents a type of generator that works with James Watts’ steam engine. Together they make it possible for us to produce lots of electricity today!
1879
1752
Benjamin Franklin flies a kite in a thunderstorm and proves that the ‘electric’ spark from amber is the same thing as lightning. The lightning strike that proves this nearly kills him!
1792
Alessandro Volta discovers that an electric current can be created when two metals touch. He invents the electric battery and the word ‘Volt’ is named after him.
1831
Michael Faraday invents the first electric generator.
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using electricity. Australia was very quick to start a novelty to something Here’s how it went from being we can’t imagine life without!
. . Electricity down under
1863
Melbourne is the first city in Australia to have a power station and the first to have electric street lights.
The first electric light is put on public display in Australia at the Observatory in Sydney.
1894
By now, one third of all homes in Australia have electricity and the most popular appliance is the clothes iron.
1927
Tamworth is the first Australian town to have street lighting. Penrith, Moss Vale, Broken Hill and Redfern follow soon after.
1888
Sydney gets its first power station. It’s built in Pyrmont, which today looks very different!
1904
There are nearly 8 million househol ds with electricity in Australia, and 70% have a computer.
Today
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. .. How is electricity made?
Most families get their electricity from a power station. in giant magnets. The At each power station, there is a huge coil of wire that spins around s and thousands of atoms, with many more thousands coil of wire is made up of hundred s to flow quickly from of electrons. As the wire spins, the giant magnets cause the electron ty. atom to atom, creating electrici spin. Different power stations use different methods to make the coil wire t power stations people have built to get those Here are a few differen electrons flowing.
