Katie

=  How Did Electricity Change the Way We Make Stuff? =

**What were a couple of the greatest inventions in the 1900's? -the telephone -the lightbulb Who made them? (In Order.) - Alexander Graham Bell -Thomas Edison** ** How were they made? -The telephone was made by transmitting a timbre electrically through wires from a room to another room using iron resonant reeds driven by electromagnetics. Watson and bell started experimenting by using a thin desk foor the membrane and and a magnetic iron cord in the coil. Then they replaced a heavier membrane and a lighter reed. He started to hear voices on the other line, and decided to get a patent on it. Later, on March 7th, 1876, he was awarded his patent for the telephone. After he got his patent, he experimented with is invention to make the telephone reach the best of its potential. ** **-The lightbulb was made by seven system elements that he needed to come up with for the application of electric lights instead of using the gas lights that were commonly used then. Remwmber, Edison didn't actually invent the light bulb. He improved "upon a 50-year-old idea." The** **seven system elements were:** ** Picture of Thomas Edison **
 * The parallel circuit
 * A durable lightbulb
 * An improved dynamo
 * The underground conductor network
 * The devices for maintaining constant voltage
 * Safelty fuses and insulating materials
 * Light sockets with on-off switches

** How were people affected by them? -Before the telephone was invented, people relied on getting messages from mouth to mouth or through a messenger. Also the town crier read the communtiy announcements until the newspaper came out. These ways of communication worked for small towns, but to reach someone that lived a long disttance away, it was impractical. Later, people tried the telegraph and having captain's from ships send the letters across seas, but that was unreliable because theifs often ripped through the bag and stole money that was being sent. Then, the telephone was made, and people were able to reach others long distance, and were able to have a telephone in thier home and use it whenever they wanted to. They didn't need to know the morse code or go to the nearest telegraph office to send or recieve a message. Business also excelled using the telephone, and the telephone was a quick and inexpensive way for salesmen to reach their clients one-on-one without meeting eachother. The military benefitted because they could keep a close eye on enemies and they could reach their friends telling them if any were near, no matter the distance apart, and farmers could quickly and easily find the price for a particular crop or necessity. The telephone has changed the way we communicate and at a quicker speed. ** **-Before the lightbulb was invented people used kerosene lanterns, candles, torches, oil lamps, fire and sunlight to produce light. People had to go through so much trouble to light the lamp, make a fire, and relight the lamps or candles if they blow out, or run the risk of your candle burning out and your left in the dark! Thankfully, Thomas Edison made the light bulb, because people were able to just turn on the lightbulb with the flip of a switch, and your room would be instanlty bright and you wouldn't have to worry about it burning out in a long time.**

**So, down to the ultimate question........hoe are these inventions made differently from the way we make our "products?"** -**Factories burn fuel to make the products they sell. Power plants burn coal to make electricity. Factories are using electricity to make more of one product in less amounts of time. Hardly anything is handmade anymore. Almost all factories are filled up with different types of machines for different things, such as the elctric meat slicer, rotary moulder that molds cookies into shapes and designs, mixers, which are huge bowls that mix the overload of ingredients to gether using electricity because it would hardly be possible for you to stir, which are obviously run by electricity. You see, these inventions are made differently than the way they were made in the 1900s because in the 1900s things were hand-made, and hardly anything is hand-made in America anymore. If we didn't have the machines we have today to kame our products in factories, we wouldn't be able to produce less than half of the things that we do today, which then nobody would be able to have things that they need for eveyday life.** **As you can see, America depends on electricity for the making of our products and everyday neccesities, and if we did not have electricity, that would alter our course for success drastically.** Citations: -http://www.scitechantiques.com/belltelephone/ -http://asms.k12.ar.us/classes/humanities/amstud/97-98/telecom/telephone_and_telegraph.htm -http://www.voyagesthroughtime.org/technology/sample/lesson4/act1.htm -http://www.need.org/needpdf/infobook_activities/ElemInfo/IntroE.pdf -http://www.alibaba.com/trade/search?SearchText=electric+machines+used+to+make+products+in&IndexArea=product_en&src=yahooshortcut -http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/bledison.htm -http://blog.lampsplus.com/images/lpblog/BlogImages/Thomas%20Edison.jpg

= =