OT Electronics...

[OIIIIIIIO]

Hi

If you were to make a time line of "important" people in the field of electronics...outside of Volta, Watt, Ampere, Ohm and Joule, who would you include?

If you want to include a brief snipet of why you think that person is "important" in the field of electronics feel free...but I'm basically just brainstorming a list of names...the more the better...

Thanks!
Patrick

[Jim_Lou]

Tesla for his work with radio frequency.

[LEVE]

Me.. .for putting up with all you guys for 15 years!

[CJ7Taz]

Hey, this is for the field of electronics, NOBODY SAID A WORD ABOUT SAINTHOOD.

[GoldToyBox]

The Early years
First written evidence of "elekton" was from Thales of Miletus 600 bc
William Gilbert, was physican to Queen Elizabeth I, 1600 ad, did early experiments but he called it a "fluid"
Charles du Fay, frenchman of the same era, did other experiments.
Ben Franklin, first to use the terms positive & negative for electical charges
JJ Thomson, 1897 came up with the basic electron theory
Niel Bohr, 1900 Danish scientist came up with the basis for modern atomic theory
Other prominate names of the early years;
Marconi, Andre-Marie Ampere, Otis Boykin, Rudolf Diesel, Thomas Edison, Michael Faraday, Luigi Galvani, William Gilbert, Otto von Guericke, Joseph Henry, Charles Franklin Kettering, Lewis Latimer, James Clerk Maxwell, Isaac Newton, Hans Christian Oersted, Georg Ohm, Lester Pelton my favorite), Charles Proteus Steinmetz, William Stanley, Jr., Nikola Tesla, Alessandro Volta, George Westinghouse, Granville Woods, Steven Gray, Robert Boyle,

WWII probably brought the most gains in the shortest time and opened the door to what we call the electronic industry of today. Many annonous teams of scientist & researchers made many discoveries. Eventually leading to the 'computer age' we enjoy (?) today.

Time for dinner!

Edit
*********************
for this forum the best answer would be;
Thomas Davenport built an electric car in 1835, which was road worthy ... being there weren't any roads this was probably the FIRST OFF-ROAD VEHICLE!!!
Moses Farmer built an electric locomotive a few years later.

[bandhmo2]

Some big names that jump to mind for me are.

Gustav Kirchhoff - electric circuits

Kirchhoff's voltage law - (I am paraphrasing here) the sum of voltages around any closed circuit is zero.
Kirchhoff's current law - (again paraphrased) the sum of all currents into a node is zero.

Michael Faraday - Big in Electromagnetism, Chemistry of Battery's, and Electric motor theory. The unit used to measure capacitance (Farad) is named after him.

James Maxwell - unified electromagnetic theory. The Maxwell equations tied togeather light, magnetism and electricity.

Max Planck - Quantum nature of light which explains how solar cells work.

[JeepDawg]

James Maxwell - unified electromagnetic theory. The Maxwell equations tied togeather light, magnetism and electricity.

Maxwell equations.....God, ,that was a tough class....good reason it's called FM.

[TeamRush]

Originally Posted by Jim_Lou

Tesla for his work with radio frequency.

Nikola Tesla, but NOT for his work with radio, but for virtually single handedly building the current AC power grid!

Virtually all of the large AC generator rotor designs are his,
All of the large transformers we use are virtually unchanged from his,
All of the high powered AC switching we use today on the world power grid are his designs...

There simply isn't any AC power grid without Nikola Tesla and George Westinghouse.

Consider throwing a nod to,
John Bardeen and Walter Brattain, who produced the first practial, working transistor at AT&T Bell Labs,

William Shockley saw the potential in it and revolutionized the world with low cost semi-conductors that the 'Modern' world simply wouldn't function without.