Electicity and Electrical Componenents

Visible Electricity

Electricity is a fundamental part of the computer. It's the energy that drives every computation of every modern computer and powers every ai system.

Electricity is visible around us in certain conditions. Static electricity can be seen both through lightning, certain fish (electric eels), and through static formed through rubbbing certain materials together.

It was also observed that materials that have "static charge" can pull other materials without having to touch them.

Certain rocks can pull other particles of sand. Or when you rub certain rocks against cloth they will attract small objects.

Static Strorage

By rubbing different materials together it was observed that energy can be placed "onto" an object.

Leyden jars were one of the first ways this charge was stored. It could then be used to produce a shock. The electricity was demonstrated by participants being shocked by it, making frog legs move when shocked, and making a visible spark in the air.

Electricity Storage

Next it was figured out that electricity could be stored inside materials and released more consistently by combining different materials and chemicals.

By stacking Zinc and Copper with saltwater soaked cloth (electrolyte) between each piece, a chemical reaction would happen and electricity would be produced if you attached wires to both sides. This was developed in 1800 by Alessandro Volta and called a voltaic pile. It allowed electricity release in a more controlled manner, and mantained energy over time even after some usage.

Electricity Generation

It was then found that electricity could be generated through physical movement too. By spinning magnets inside coils of wire the electrons would be energized and it was observed that current was produced. This is the basic concept that powers modern electricty generators. The spinning magnet could be connected to a hand crank, a water wheel, or eventually a steam turbine, and provide continous power.

These more stable flows of energy allowed for more complex systems to use electricity. Eventually large telegraph offices built electricity generators so they could consistently send and recieve messages through telegraph wires, without the need for hand cranks.

More Uses for Electricity

Now that people had consistent energy sources the ideas for how it could be used exapanded. New ways to produce light were created. In the 1840s the arc lamp showed that by using a gap between wires voltage passing over it could produce light. Then in the 1870's it was shown that filaments in lightbulbs could last long enough if they were encapsulated in a vaccum.

It as also shown that electricity could produce motion through the reverse process of an electric generator. By sending current into a winding of wires it would cause a magnet inside it to keep spinning. This was used in certain industrial applications and to power some minecarts in mines.

Better batteries

Battery technology improved aswell. In 1850s it was found that lead-acid batteries had charge, but they were able to be recharged. This was a breakthrough as previously batteries were only single use.

Electricity properties

In the same way that electricity could cause motion in an electric motor the same properties could also be used to control power switches remotely. By running current in a certain direction through wires we could push or pull another piece of metal causing a separate circuit to be opened or closed. This was the basics of what a relay is.

This concept of relays was useful as it allowed turning on or off large machines or sending messages from far away (telegraph). This is what would eventually make up the first computers but it was not known at this time.

Vaccum Tubes and Transistors

These relays were useful but they required physical movement of metal components meaning there was physical wear and it required higher amounts of energy to move them. As things like telegraphs got further away they didn't have enough power to switch a relay. Technology improve and people weren't just sending morse code but were trying to send audio signals aswell but relays made this difficult as there physical movement caused chatter and noise.

Through iterative inventions of people trying to detect radio waves and improve incandescent lightbulbs, it was eventaully discovered that this same relay action can be done in a vaccum tube by properly positioning different materials. Vaccum tubes used a filament, grid, and plate to control electron flow utilizing an effect that would become known as the Colomb Force.

Each piece was placed in a vaccuum tube with gap between them, due to Columb Force, When the correct voltage is applied to the grid it allows electrons to flow from a energized filament to the plate completing the circuit/flow. This now allowed for controlling electricity and measuring

BJTs transistors came next which used special chemicals called N and P type semiconductors composed of materials with different electron valences. These materials do not normally conduct elecricity thorugh one another but if we apply the proper voltage then electricity is allowed to flow between them.

N and P doped materials formed a "sandwhich" where the middle material restricts electron flow until a voltage is applied to it.

These transistors were further improved by adding a insulated plate on top with a piece of metal over the top. By applying voltage to that metal it creates such a field that it allows electrons from the 2 sides to "press" against the insulator creating a channel almost allowing more efficient transfer of electrons.

These mosfets are the core technology which makes up processors in modern computers. They allow billions of binary math calculations to happen every second in a processor. with the mosfets constantly switching on or off to represent 1 and 0.