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Electrical Demonstration
Electrical demonstrations during the eighteenth century were performances by experimental philosophers before an audience to entertain with and teach about electricity. Such displays took place in British America as well across Europe. Their form varied from something similar to modern day carnival shows to grand displays in exhibition halls and theatres. With concern about safety of electrical power, these displays were sometimes pushed back upon. History Ebenezer Kinnersley Ebenezer Kinnersley was one of the first showmen of electricity in British America, touring his electrical displays from 1749-1774. His lectures of electrical phenomena did not only show natural phenomena to the audience, but instead were interactive demonstrations that required their active participation. In Kinnersley’s shows, audience members were able to have some embodied experience with electricity. One of two Kinnersley’s two touring electrical demonstrations focused on “the newly discovere ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Electricity
Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter that has a property of electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as described by Maxwell's equations. Various common phenomena are related to electricity, including lightning, static electricity, electric heating, electric discharges and many others. The presence of an electric charge, which can be either positive or negative, produces an electric field. The movement of electric charges is an electric current and produces a magnetic field. When a charge is placed in a location with a non-zero electric field, a force will act on it. The magnitude of this force is given by Coulomb's law. If the charge moves, the electric field would be doing work on the electric charge. Thus we can speak of electric potential at a certain point in space, which is equal to the work done by an external agent in carrying a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
British America
British America comprised the colonial territories of the English Empire, which became the British Empire after the 1707 union of the Kingdom of England with the Kingdom of Scotland to form the Kingdom of Great Britain, in the Americas from 1607 to 1783. Prior to the union, this was termed ''English America'', excepting Scotland's failed attempts to establish its own colonies. Following the union, these colonies were formally known as British America and the British West Indies before the Thirteen Colonies declared their independence in the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783) and formed the United States of America. After the American Revolution, the term '' British North America'' was used to refer to the remainder of Great Britain's possessions in North America. The term British North America was used in 1783, but it was more commonly used after the ''Report on the Affairs of British North America'' (1839), generally known as the '' Durham Report''. History ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ebenezer Kinnersley
Ebenezer Kinnersley (30 November 1711 – 4 July 1778]) was an English scientist, inventor and lecturer, specializing in the investigation of electricity. Life and Scientific Studies Ebenezer Kinnersley was a son of Rev. William Kinnersley, an assistant pastor of the Lower Dublin Baptist church. Ebenezer became a member of this church while young, and in 1743 was ordained as a minister, but he never served as a pastor. He travelled to America with his parents in 1714. His early life was passed at Dublin, and then he went to Philadelphia, where he gave evidence of his genius as a scholar and mechanician. It is supposed that he taught a school there and associated with Benjamin Franklin, who soon learned to appreciate young Kinnersley, whom he designates as "an ingenious neighbor." When Franklin saw Dr Spence, a Scotsman in Boston, experiment with a glass tube and silk, and observed the effects that were produced, he communicated the fact to his associates in Philadelphia, and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Leyden Jar
A Leyden jar (or Leiden jar, or archaically, sometimes Kleistian jar) is an electrical component that stores a high-voltage electric charge (from an external source) between electrical conductors on the inside and outside of a glass jar. It typically consists of a glass jar with metal foil cemented to the inside and the outside surfaces, and a metal terminal projecting vertically through the jar lid to make contact with the inner foil. It was the original form of capacitor (also called a ''condenser''). Its invention was a discovery made independently by German cleric Ewald Georg von Kleist on 11 October 1745 and by Dutch scientist Pieter van Musschenbroek of Leiden (Leyden), Netherlands in 1745–1746. The Leyden jar was used to conduct many early experiments in electricity, and its discovery was of fundamental importance in the study of electrostatics. It was the first means of accumulating and preserving electric charge in large quantities that could be discharged at the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Archibald Spencer
Archibald Spencer (January 1, 1698 – January 13, 1760) was a businessman, scientist, doctor, clergyman, and lecturer. He did seminars on science and for a while made a living at this. His lecture demonstrations were on medicine, light, and electricity. He is noted for introducing the phenomenon of electricity to Benjamin Franklin. As a businessman, he made investments in and helped form Anne Arundel County, Maryland. Early life Spencer was born on January 1, 1698, in Edinburgh, Scotland. Adam, his given name at birth, later changed to Archibald. Some writers on Benjamin Franklin's life have stated that Spencer was a medical doctor, and a male midwife. He specialized in diseases of the eye. Historian Nick Bunker claims he obtained his medical degree from the University of St Andrews of Scotland in 1739 by providing testimonials from two reputable physicians. Career Spencer was a businessman in the British Colonies of America. From 1743 to 1751 he professionally conducted s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Henry Moyes
Henry Moyes (1750 – 1807) was a blind Scottish lecturer on natural philosophy.A. D. Morrison-Low, ‘ Moyes, Henry (1749/50–1807)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Sept 2004 Life As an itinerant public speaker he helped raise 18th century popular interest in the new field of chemistry. He mixed with the greatest engineers and scientists of the day and attended the Lunar Society. In London he shared a room in George Street, Hanover Square with Adam Walker where lectures were given to small groups of gentry.p125 ''Musson, Robinson'' Moyes was described as ''an excellent lecturer in philosophy'' by Joseph Priestley. His portrait was painted by John Russell. He was born in 1750 and came from a humble Kirkcaldy background and was blinded aged three by smallpox. In 1766 he was befriended by Adam Smith, when the latter was in Kirkcaldy writing his Wealth of Nations. The boy showed precocious aptitude and, as well as teaching Moyes himself, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Samuel Damian
Samuel Damian (also spelled Samuil Domien) was an 18th-century Romanian Greek Catholic priest from Transylvania who emigrated to North America. Damian's name first appears in 1748, when he placed an advertisement in the ''South Carolina Gazette'' announcing the electrical demonstrations he planned to give, and inviting the public to attend. Letters written in 1753 and 1755 by Benjamin Franklin attest to the fact that the two had met, and had carried on discussions in Latin concerning electricity. Before settling in Charleston, South Carolina, Damian spent time in Maryland, North Carolina and Virginia. After living for some years in South Carolina, he traveled to Jamaica, and after that his name disappears from historical records.Wertsman, Vladimir (1975). ''The Romanians in America, 1748–1974''. New York: Oceana Publications See also * Romanian American * List of Romanian Americans This is a list of notable Romanian-Americans, including both original immigrants from Romania ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
International Exposition Of Electricity
The first International Exposition of Electricity in Paris ran from August 15, 1881 through to November 15, 1881 at the Palais de l'Industrie on the Champs-Élysées. It served to display the advances in electrical technology since the small electrical display at the 1878 Universal Exposition.K. G. Beauchamp, '' Exhibiting electricity'' IET, 1997 , pp.160-165 Exhibitors came from the United Kingdom, United States, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands, as well as from France. As part of the exhibition, the first International Congress of Electricians presented numerous scientific and technical papers, including definitions of the standard practical units volt, ohm and ampere. History Adolphe Cochery, Minister of Posts and Telegraphs of the time, had initially suggested that an international exposition should be held. This show was a great stir. The public could admire the dynamo of Zénobe Gramme, the incandescent light, the Théâtrophone, the electric tramway of Werner vo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Crystal Palace
The Crystal Palace was a cast iron and plate glass structure, originally built in Hyde Park, London, to house the Great Exhibition of 1851. The exhibition took place from 1 May to 15 October 1851, and more than 14,000 exhibitors from around the world gathered in its exhibition space to display examples of technology developed in the Industrial Revolution. Designed by Joseph Paxton, the Great Exhibition building was long, with an interior height of , and was three times the size of St Paul's Cathedral. The introduction of the sheet glass method into Britain by Chance Brothers in 1832 made possible the production of large sheets of cheap but strong glass, and its use in the Crystal Palace created a structure with the greatest area of glass ever seen in a building. It astonished visitors with its clear walls and ceilings that did not require interior lights. It has been suggested that the name of the building resulted from a piece penned by the playwright Douglas Jerrold, who ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Edison Manufacturing Company
The Edison Manufacturing Company, originally registered as the United Edison Manufacturing Company and often known as simply the Edison Company, was organized by inventor and entrepreneur Thomas Edison and incorporated in New York City in May 1889. It succeeded the Edison United Manufacturing Company, founded in 1886 as a sales agency for the Edison Lamp Company, Edison Machine Works, and Bergmann & Company, which made electric lighting fixtures, sockets, and other accessories. In April 1894, the Edison laboratory's Kinetoscope operation, which was about to be commercialized, was brought under the Edison Company umbrella. In 1900, the United Edison Manufacturing Company was evidently succeeded by the New Jersey–incorporated Edison Manufacturing Company. The company's assets and operations were transferred to Thomas A. Edison, Inc. in 1911. History The Edison United Manufacturing Company was incorporated in July 1886 to consolidate the sales operations of the various Edison manu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Richard D'Oyly Carte
Richard D'Oyly Carte (; 3 May 1844 – 3 April 1901) was an English talent agent, theatrical impresario, composer, and hotelier during the latter half of the Victorian era. He built two of London's theatres and a hotel empire, while also establishing an opera company that ran continuously for over a hundred years and a management agency representing some of the most important artists of the day. Carte started his career working for his father, Richard Carte, in the music publishing and musical instrument manufacturing business. As a young man he conducted and composed music, but he soon turned to promoting the entertainment careers of others through his management agency. Carte believed that a school of wholesome, well-crafted, family-friendly, English comic opera could be as popular as the risqué French works dominating the London musical stage in the 1870s. To that end he brought together the dramatist W. S. Gilbert and composer Arthur Sullivan and nurtured their collaboration ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Savoy Theatre
The Savoy Theatre is a West End theatre in the Strand in the City of Westminster, London, England. The theatre was designed by C. J. Phipps for Richard D'Oyly Carte and opened on 10 October 1881 on a site previously occupied by the Savoy Palace. Its intended purpose was to showcase the popular series of comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan, which became known as the Savoy operas. The theatre was the first public building in the world to be lit entirely by electricity. For many years, the Savoy Theatre was the home of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, which continued to be run by the Carte family for over a century. Richard's son Rupert D'Oyly Carte rebuilt and modernised the theatre in 1929, and it was rebuilt again in 1993 following a fire. It is a Grade II* listed building. In addition to ''The Mikado'' and other famous Gilbert and Sullivan premières, the theatre has hosted such premières as the first public performance in England of Oscar Wilde's ''Salome'' (1931) and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
