Facts about electricity

1) Electricity is a term which encompasses a variety of phenomena resulting from the presence and flow of electrical charge.

2) It is a secondary source of energy, meaning that it is produced from coal, oil, nuclear power and other sources of natural energy.

3) Like all forms of energy, the energy from electricity can neither be created nor destroyed: it is simply transferred or converted from or to other forms, such as heat, light and power.

4) Electricity generation began just over 100 years ago.

5) The word electricity is rooted New Latin electricus, "amber-like", the classical Latin electrum, and in the Greek word elektron, meaning amber.

6) The power of electricity wasn't really understood until the 18th century, but its existence was recorded even as far back as the time of the Ancient Egyptians.

7) In 1972, Benjamin Franklin is reputed to have attached a metal key to the bottom of a dampened kite string and flown it in a stormy sky. He observed a succession of sparks from the key to the back of his hand, showing that lightening was electrical in nature. From this experiment in Philadelphia the first principals of electricity were developed.

8) The light bulb was invented by Thomas Edison in the late eighteenth century. Today, the production of light is one of the biggest domestic uses of electricity in the UK.

9) Nikola Tesla pioneered the use of alternating current (AC) electricity, rather than direct current (DC) electricity, which can be transmitted over much greater distances. It is as a result of this man that we are able to have electricity in our homes.

10) The Department of Transport and Industry reported that, in 2001, the UK consumed electricity equivalent to over 240 million tonnes of oil, more than it had in the last thirty years!

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