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James Watt
James Watt was a Scottish inventor who further developed the steam engine. Soon after his improvements to the machine, factories and mining companies began to use his steam engine. This helped fuel the Industrial Revolution. After his death, the electrical unit of power was named after him. -
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Alessandro Volta
Alessandro Volta was an Italian professor who invented the first battery using zinc, copper and cardboard. He produced a battery with a reliable, steady current of electricity. Volts, which are the unit of voltage, are named after him. -
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Andé-Marie Ampère
André-Marie Ampère was a French physicist and science teacher who discovered electromagnetism. He helped describe the way to measure the flow of electricity. The ampere, which is the unit for measuring electric current, was named after him. -
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Georg Ohm
George Ohm was a German physicist and teacher who researched the relationship between voltage, current and resistance. He proved that the amount of electrical current that can flow through a substance depends on its resistance to electrical flow. This is known as Ohm's Law. -
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Michael Faraday
Michael Faraday was a British physicist and chemist who discovered that moving a magnet near a coil of copper wire generated an electric current in the wire. -
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Henry Woodward
Henry Woodward was a Canadian medical student who (with a colleague named Matthew Evans) experimented placing a thin metal rod inside a glass bulb. They forced the air out of the bulb and replaced it with nitrogen gas. This caused the rod to generate light when an electric current passed through it, creating the first electric light bulb. However, they couldn't afford to further develop their idea, so sold their patenting rights to Thomas Edison. -
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Thomas Edison
Thomas Edison was an American inventor who bought Henry Woodward's patenting rights and improved his ideas. He attached wires to a thin strand of paper (later changed to a thin, iron wire) inside a glass globe. The filament began to generating light. This was the first incandescent light bulb. -
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Nikola Tesla
Nikola Tesla was a Serbian inventor who invented the first electronic motor by reversing the flow of electricity on Thomas Edison's generator. He sold the patenting rights to Westinghouse, who used the idea to light the Chicago World's Fair with a quarter of a million lights. -
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Sir Adam Beck
Sir Adam Beck was a manufacturer and politician who pointed out that private power companies were coverharging customers for electricity. He wanted all citizens to have access to cheaper electric light. He convinced the Ontario government to create the Hydro-Electric Power Commission, providing affordable electricity to many places in Ontario. The commission also set up generating stations and transmission lines that carried power from place to place.