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What Is Electricity?
1) Electricity results from the presence and flow of electrical charge.
2) It comes from the conversion of natural energy sources, such as natural gas, oil, nuclear power and coal.
3) To provide us with heat, light and power, electrical energy has to be converted. The energy that comes from electricity, like all forms of energy, can never be destroyed.
4) It's hard to believe, but the generation of electricity began only just over 100 years ago.
5) The root of the word electricity can be found in the New Latin electricus, "amber-like", the classical Latin electrum, and in the Greek word elektron, meaning amber.
6) Even the Ancient Egyptians were aware of electricity, but its power wasn't really understood until the 18th century.
7) In 1872 Benjamin Franklin conducted an experiment in Philadelphia in which he, reputedly, attached a metal key to the bottom of a dampened kite string and flown it in a stormy sky. He observed a succession of sparks from the key to the back of his hand, showing that lightening was electrical in nature. From this incident, the first principals of electricity were developed.
8) The light bulb was invented by Thomas Edison in the late eighteenth century. Today, the production of light is one of the biggest domestic uses of electricity in the UK.
9) Nikola Tesla pioneered the use of alternating current (AC) electricity, rather than direct current (DC) electricity, which can be transmitted over much greater distances. It is as a result of this man that we are able to have electricity in our homes.
10) In 2001, the UK consumed electricity equivalent to over 240 million tonnes of oil, more than it had in the last thirty years!
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