| Electrical engineering is a field of engineering that generally deals with the study and application of electricity, electronics and electromagnetism. |
The field of electrical engineering first became an identifiable occupation in the late nineteenth century after commercialization of the electric telegraph and electrical power supply. It now covers a range of subtopics including power, electronics, control systems, signal processing and telecommunications. During the development of radio, many scientists and inventors contributed to radio technology and electronics. In his classic UHF experiments of 1888, Heinrich Hertz transmitted (via a spark-gap transmitter) and detected radio waves using electrical equipment. In 1895, Nikola Tesla was able to detect signals from the transmissions of his New York lab at West Point (a distance of 80.4 km). In 1896, Alexander Popov made wireless transmissions across 60 m and Guglielmo Marconi, around the same time, made a transmission across 2.4 km. John Fleming invented the first radio tube, the diode, in 1904.
Reginald Fessenden recognized that a continuous wave needed to be generated to make speech transmission possible, and he continued the work of Nikola Tesla, John Stone Stone, and Elihu Thomson on this subject. By the end of 1906, Fessenden sent the first radio broadcast of voice. Also in 1906, Robert von Lieben and Lee De Forest independently developed the amplifier tube, called the triode. Edwin Howard Armstrong enabling technology for electronic television, in 1931. The second world war saw tremendous advances in the field of electronics; especially in RADAR and with the invention of the magnetron by Randall and Boot at the University of Birmingham in 1940. The invention of the transistor in 1947 by William B. Shockley, John Bardeen and Walter Brattain opened the door for more compact devices and led to the development of the integrated circuit in 1958 by Jack Kilby.
Answer the questions
1. Compare Russian and foreign inventions in this field of engineering.
2. What inventions of electrical engineering can be considered to the most meaningful for people? Why do you think so?
3. What other Russian inventions in the sphere of electrical engineering can you name?
2) Visit the following website http://podcasts.britishcouncil.org/podcasts/prof-engineering-projects.mp3 to listen to an excerpt of a talk given by an electrical engineer speaking about new inventions in sphere of motor technology
3)* Are the following sentences true or false?
1. Recently great advances have been made in motor technology.
a) True b) False
2. Engineers are constantly looking for new ways to use existing models.
a) True b) False
3. Engineers have more freedom for experimentation than in Faraday’s times.
a) True b) False
4. The newest motors lose more heat than the traditional motors.
a) True b) False
5. The newest motors are more compact than they used to be.
a) True b) False
6. A new motor developed by Omron may replace motors currently used in hydraulic systems.
a) True b) False
Letter of application
