Archives:Electricity, The Magic Medium

Abstract

Today we rely on, and take for granted, the silent energy of electricity for instant communication with places near and far, for lighting and heating our homes, driving our machines of production, transporting our people and produce, operating our office buildings, lighting our streets, controlling our traffic movements, calculating our scientific problems, doing our accounting, carrying out a great variety of medical treatments, and educating and entertaining ourselves. A century ago the application of electricity to these purposes was only just beginning. Six authors, with diverse background experiences, tell a remarkable story. They tell about the time when a broken sidewalk board in a western city dumped a lumber merchant into a prairie mud puddle and launched one of Canada's great electric power utilities, about how water falls and fuels in all parts of the country have been harnessed to support the growth and comfort of our cities, about a graduate of Queen's University who revolutionized the study of transmission systems through his symmetrical components method, about a great Canadian engineer who demonstrated "beyond refute his sterling abilities as a diplomat, scientist and politician", about Marconi's work in Canada, about the Canadian who made the first radio broadcast of a Christmas program, about the origin and spread of electrical engineering training across Canada, and about hundreds of other people and events in our country's electrical progress. This book is a centennial project of the Canadian Region of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, a bilingual publication, commemorating 100 years of outstanding achievement by the entire electrical industry of Canada.

Citation and Link

IEEE Canadian Region, Electricity, The Magic Medium, ed. W. Harry Prevey (Thornhill, ON: IEEE, Canadian Region, 1985).

Electricity, The Magic Medium (pdf)