Electrical


Professor Kenjiro Takayanagi started his research program in television at Hamamatsu Technical College (now Shizuoka University) in 1924. He transmitted an image of the Japanese character イ(i) on a cathode-ray tube on 25 December 1926 and broadcast video over an electronic television system in 1935. His work, patents, articles, and teaching helped lay the foundation for the rise of Japanese television and related industries to global leadership.
The milestone plaque may be viewed at the site of the research at Hamamatsu Technical College (now Shizuoka University).
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Image Credit: Courtesy Wikipedia/sphlImage Caption: A recreation of Professor Takayanagi's first demonstration of television on display at Shizuoka University.Era_date_from: 1924
2009

The Tokaido Shinkansen, the world's first inter-city, high-speed railway system, began operations on its route of over 500 kilometers between Tokyo and Osaka more than thirty years ago, in 1964. After its establishment, the Tokaido Shinkansen made a major contribution to Japan's rapid post-war economic growth as the country's principal transportation artery. Today (1997), more than two hundred and eighty Shinkansen trains operate between Tokyo and Osaka each day, with eleven departures an hour at peak times, and a daily ridership of more than 360,000 passengers.
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Image Caption: JR Central 700 Series Shinkansen set C40 on the Tōkaidō Shinkansen between Kakegawa and Shizuoka StationEra_date_from: 1964
2000

"On 20 March 1886 William Stanley provided alternating current electrification to offices and stores on Main Street in Great Barrington, Massachusetts.
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Image Caption: Alternating Current ElectrificationEra_date_from: 1886
2004

The basic research tool at SLAC is an intense beam of electrons that have been accelerated by an electric field equivalent to 30 billion volts, making this the most powerful electron beam in the world.
The two-mile linear accelerator produces this field using high-power microwaves traveling through an evacuated waveguide. Electrons injected into one end of this pipe are continuously accelerated by this traveling field to very high energies.
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Image Credit: Courtesy Wikipedia/Jvimal (CC BY 3.0)Image Caption: Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC)Era_date_from: 1962
1984

"The Alexanderson radio alternator was a high-power, radio-frequency source which provided reliable transoceanic radiotelegraph communication during and after World War I. Ernst F.W. Alexanderson (1878-1975), a General Electric engineer, designed radio alternators with a frequency range to 100 kHz and a power capability from 2 kW to 200 kW.
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Image Credit: Public Domain; Produced prior to 1/1/1923Image Caption: Alexanderson Radio AlternatorEra_date_from: 1904
1992

"Electricity produced here in the spring of 1891 was transmitted 2.6 miles over rugged and at times inaccessible terrain to provide power for operating the motor-driven mill at the Gold King Mine. This pioneering demonstration of the practical value of transmitting electrical power was a significant precedent in the United States for much larger plants at Niagara Falls (in 1895) and elsewhere. Electricity at Ames was generated at 3000 volts, 133 Hertz, single-phase AC, by a 100-hp Westinghouse alternator."
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Image Credit: Courtesy Wikipedia/Ray Wood (CC BY-SA 3.0) Image Caption: The Ames Hydroelectric Generating Plant, and behind it the trees of the Uncompahgre National ForestEra_date_from: 1891
1988

The Arecibo Observatory has the largest radio telescope ever constructed. Maintaining the greatest electromagnetic wave gathering capacity of any telescope, it has been an essential tool in modern astronomy, ionosphere and planetary studies. Several feats of mechanical engineering went into the construction of this observatory, most notable of which is a drive system which allows all active parts of the antenna to be kept focused with millimeter precision regardless of environmental factors—such as thermal expansion.
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Image Caption: NAIC/Arecibo RadiotelescopeEra_date_from: 1963
2001

When the Adams Plant went into operation on August 26, 1895, it represented a key victory for alternating-current systems over direct-current. The clear advantage of high voltage AC for long distance power transmission and the unprecedented size of the plant (it reached its full capacity of ten 5,000-HP generators in May 1900) influenced the future of the electrical industry worldwide.
In August 1895 the Adams No. 1 generating station of the Niagara Falls Power Company first supplied electric power to local industries in Niagara Falls, New York.
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Image Credit: Courtesy Wikipedia/Lvklock (CC BY-SA 3.0)Image Caption: Adams Hydroelectric Generating PlantEra_date_from: 1895
1990

"At 10:30 p.m., 29 October 1969, the first ARPANET message was sent from this UCLA site to the Stanford Research Institute. Based on packet switching and dynamic resource allocation, the sharing of information digitally from this first node of ARPANET launched the Internet revolution."
(The plaque can be seen at the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, 405 Hilgard Ave., Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.)
The deployment of the ARPANET set in motion a train of developments that led to the Internet as we know it today.
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Image Credit: Courtesy Flickr/FastLizard4 (CC BY-SA 2.0)Image Caption: The original Interface Message Processor, a primitive router, and considered widely to be the beginning (or "birth") of the internetEra_date_from: 1969
2009