Editing Electrical engineering (section)

===19th century===
[[File:Faraday Cochran Pickersgill.jpg|thumb|upright|The discoveries of [[Michael Faraday]] formed the foundation of electric motor technology.]]

In the 19th century, research into the subject started to intensify. Notable developments in this century include the work of [[Hans Christian Ørsted]], who discovered in 1820 that an electric current produces a magnetic field that will deflect a compass needle; of [[William Sturgeon]], who in 1825 invented the [[electromagnet]]; of [[Joseph Henry]] and [[Edward Davy]], who invented the [[electrical relay]] in 1835; of [[Georg Ohm]], who in 1827 quantified the relationship between the [[electric current]] and [[potential difference]] in a [[Electrical conductor|conductor]]; of [[Michael Faraday]], the discoverer of [[electromagnetic induction]] in 1831; and of [[James Clerk Maxwell]], who in 1873 published a unified [[Maxwell's equations|theory]] of electricity and [[magnetism]] in his treatise ''Electricity and Magnetism''.{{sfn|Lambourne|2010|p=11}}

In 1782, [[Georges-Louis Le Sage]] developed and presented in [[Berlin]] probably the world's first form of [[Electrical telegraph|electric telegraphy]], using 24 different wires, one for each letter of the alphabet. This telegraph connected two rooms. It was an electrostatic telegraph that moved gold leaf through electrical conduction.

In 1795, [[Francisco Salva Campillo]] proposed an electrostatic telegraph system. Between 1803 and 1804, he worked on electrical telegraphy, and in 1804, he presented his report at the Royal Academy of Natural Sciences and Arts of Barcelona. Salva's electrolyte telegraph system was very innovative though it was greatly influenced by and based upon two discoveries made in Europe in 1800—Alessandro Volta's electric battery for generating an electric current and William Nicholson and Anthony Carlyle's electrolysis of water.<ref>{{Cite web |date=25 January 2016 |title=Francesc Salvà i Campillo : Biography |url=https://ethw.org/Francesc_Salv%C3%A0_i_Campillo |access-date=25 March 2019 |website=ethw.org |language=en-US}}</ref> [[Electrical telegraph]]y may be considered the first example of electrical engineering.<ref>{{cite web | url = https://distantwriting.co.uk/introduction.html | title = Distant Writing: A History of the Telegraph Companies in Britain between 1838 and 1868: 2. Introduction | last = Roberts | first = Steven | quote = Using these discoveries a number of inventors or rather ‘adapters’ appeared, taking this new knowledge, transforming it into useful ideas with commercial utility; the first of these ‘products’ was the use of electricity to transmit information between distant points, the electric telegraph. }}</ref> Electrical engineering became a profession in the later 19th century.  Practitioners had created a global [[electric telegraph]] network, and the first professional electrical engineering institutions were founded in the UK and the US to support the new discipline. [[Francis Ronalds]] created an electric telegraph system in 1816 and documented his vision of how the world could be transformed by electricity.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Sir Francis Ronalds: Father of the Electric Telegraph|last=Ronalds|first=B.F.|publisher=Imperial College Press|year=2016|isbn=978-1-78326-917-4|location=London}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Ronalds|first=B.F.|date=2016|title=Sir Francis Ronalds and the Electric Telegraph|journal=International Journal for the History of Engineering & Technology|volume=86|pages=42–55|doi=10.1080/17581206.2015.1119481|s2cid=113256632}}</ref> Over 50 years later, he joined the new Society of Telegraph Engineers (soon to be renamed the [[Institution of Electrical Engineers]]) where he was regarded by other members as the first of their cohort.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Ronalds|first=B.F.|date=July 2016|title=Francis Ronalds (1788–1873): The First Electrical Engineer?|journal=Proceedings of the IEEE|volume=104|issue=7|pages=1489–1498|doi=10.1109/JPROC.2016.2571358|s2cid=20662894}}</ref> By the end of the 19th century, the world had been forever changed by the rapid communication made possible by the engineering development of land-lines, [[submarine communications cable|submarine cable]]s, and, from about 1890, [[wireless telegraphy]].

Practical applications and advances in such fields created an increasing need for standardized [[units of measure]]. They led to the international standardization of the units [[volt]], [[ampere]], [[coulomb]], [[ohm]], [[farad]], and [[henry (unit)|henry]]. This was achieved at an international conference in [[Chicago]] in 1893.{{Sfn|Rosenberg|2008|p=9}} The publication of these standards formed the basis of future advances in standardization in various industries, and in many countries, the definitions were immediately recognized in relevant legislation.{{sfn|Tunbridge|1992}}

During these years, the study of electricity was largely considered to be a subfield of [[physics]] since early electrical technology was considered [[electromechanical]] in nature. The [[Technische Universität Darmstadt]] founded the world's first department of electrical engineering in 1882 and introduced the first-degree course in electrical engineering in 1883.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.etit.tu-darmstadt.de/fachbereich/profil/historie/index.en.jsp|title=Historie|last=Darmstadt|first=Technische Universität|website=Technische Universität Darmstadt|language=en|access-date=12 October 2019}}</ref> The first electrical engineering degree program in the United States was started at [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]] (MIT) in the physics department under Professor Charles Cross,{{Sfn|Wildes|Lindgren|1985|p=19}} though it was [[Cornell University]] to produce the world's first electrical engineering graduates in 1885.<ref>{{cite web | title=History|publisher=School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Cornell| date=Spring 1994| orig-date=Later updated|url=http://www.ece.cornell.edu/ece/about/history.cfm | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130606163120/http://www.ece.cornell.edu/ece/about/history.cfm | archive-date=6 June 2013 | url-status=dead}}</ref> The first course in electrical engineering was taught in 1883 in Cornell's [[Sibley College of Mechanical Engineering and Mechanic Arts]].<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://www.engineering.cornell.edu/about/upload/Cornell-Engineering-history.pdf |title=A tradition of leadership and innovation: a history of Cornell Engineering|year=2009|archive-date=3 March 2016| publication-place=Ithaca, NY | isbn=978-0-918531-05-6 | oclc=455196772 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303165241/http://www.engineering.cornell.edu/about/upload/Cornell-Engineering-history.pdf |url-status=dead |last1=Roger Segelken |first1=H. }}</ref>

In about 1885, Cornell President [[Andrew Dickson White]] established the first Department of Electrical Engineering in the United States.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://president.cornell.edu/andrew-dickson-white/|title=Andrew Dickson White &#124; Office of the President|website=president.cornell.edu}}</ref> In the same year, [[University College London]] founded the first chair of electrical engineering in Great Britain.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Electrical Engineer|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TLLmAAAAMAAJ|year=1911|page=54}}</ref> Professor Mendell P. Weinbach at [[University of Missouri]] established the electrical engineering department in 1886.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://engineering.missouri.edu/ece/about/department-history/|title=Department History – Electrical & Computer Engineering|access-date=5 November 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151117054305/http://engineering.missouri.edu/ece/about/department-history/|archive-date=17 November 2015|url-status=dead}}</ref> Afterwards, universities and [[institutes of technology]] gradually started to offer electrical engineering programs to their students all over the world.

During these decades the use of electrical engineering increased dramatically. In 1882, [[Thomas Edison]] switched on the world's first large-scale electric power network that provided 110 volts—[[direct current]] (DC)—to 59 customers on [[Manhattan Island]] in New York City. In 1884, [[Sir Charles Parsons]] invented the [[steam turbine]] allowing for more efficient electric power generation. [[Alternating current]], with its ability to transmit power more efficiently over long distances via the use of [[transformer]]s, developed rapidly in the 1880s and 1890s with transformer designs by [[Károly Zipernowsky]], [[Ottó Bláthy]] and [[Miksa Déri]] (later called ZBD transformers), [[Lucien Gaulard]], [[John Dixon Gibbs]] and [[William Stanley Jr.]] Practical [[AC motor]] designs including [[induction motor]]s were independently invented by [[Galileo Ferraris]] and [[Nikola Tesla]] and further developed into a practical [[three-phase]] form by [[Mikhail Dolivo-Dobrovolsky]] and [[Charles Eugene Lancelot Brown]].{{Sfn|Heertje|Perlman|1990|p=138}} [[Charles Steinmetz]] and [[Oliver Heaviside]] contributed to the theoretical basis of alternating current engineering.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=f5FqsDPVQ2MC&q=theoretical%20%20alternating%20current%20%20Oliver%20Heaviside&pg=PA1229|title=Companion Encyclopedia of the History and Philosophy of the Mathematical Sciences|first=I.|last=Grattan-Guinness|date=1 January 2003|publisher=JHU Press|via=Google Books|isbn=9780801873973}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lew5IC5piCwC&q=theoretical%20%20alternating%20current%20%20Charles%20Steinmetz&pg=PA329|title=Mathematics in Historical Context|first=Jeff|last=Suzuki|date=27 August 2009|publisher=MAA|via=Google Books|isbn=9780883855706}}</ref> The spread in the use of AC set off in the United States what has been called the ''[[war of the currents]]'' between a [[George Westinghouse]] backed AC system and a Thomas Edison backed DC power system, with AC being adopted as the overall standard.{{sfn|Severs|Leise|2011|p=145}}