Page 59 - Inventions - A Visual Encyclopedia (DK - Smithsonian)

PUBLIC ELECTRICITY SUPPLY
In 1882, the American inventor Thomas Edison GENERATING ELECTRICITY
launched the first steam-powered electricity-generating
station in London. He supplied the surrounding Early power stations were powered by vast amounts of coal. Lumps
streets and businesses with electric light for a period of this fuel were fed into huge furnaces to produce the heat required to
of three months. Later that year, he opened the Pearl turn water into steam, which drove the turbines. In turn, this generated
electricity. Later, oil replaced coal as this was less polluting.
Street Power Station in New York City.

3. The turbine spins 5. Electricity is carried away
as steam flows over it. by wires and pylons, ending
The steam condenses up in homes and businesses.
back into water and
the process repeats.

Coal MAKING THE MODERN WORLD
4. The generator
turns the turbine’s
rotational energy
into electricity.
1. When coal 2. Water boils due
New York City, 1882 burns, it to the heat, creating
Workers test electric releases heat. steam that flows
cables before laying around the furnace.
them in the ground.

POWER STATION
Sebastian de Ferranti was
a British engineer and a
pioneer in the field of
electricity. In 1887, he was
hired by the newly formed
London Electric Supply
Corporation for whom he
designed the world’s first
modern power station,
in Deptford, London.

Brokdorf Nuclear Power
Deptford Power Station, 1890 Plant, Germany

The plunger moves
inside the well and
brings oil to the surface.
NUCLEAR POWER
In 1923, scientists discovered
that “splitting” atoms unleashed
tremendous power. In 1951 in
the US, a nuclear reactor was
used for the first time to generate
electricity. In 1954 in Russia,
a nuclear power plant
became the first to generate
electricity for a power grid.
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