Electrical Theory

Benjamin Franklin was first to described electricity, in the form of lighting strikes, as a “flow” of energy. He called lightening “electric fire,” and thought the stuff a sort of fluid, as did most people at that time. Franklin was also the first person to ascribe “positive” and “negative” to the yet unknown forces triggering small static and huge lightening discharges. Franklin tried to capture lightening in a Leiden jar, something of a crude “battery” (which is another term fist coined by Franklin), with his famous kite experiments. Fortunately, for both Ben Franklin and the jar, the experiments produced only in minor success so far as attracting a big bolt of electric fire. Franklin, in a sense, was also the first person to electrify his home. He accomplished this by means of lightning rods (another Franklin invention) that he attached to the peak of his roof, tied to some bells, and then “grounded” (his term) to the earth with a driven rod by means of a wire. After so wiring his home, Ben promptly shipped-off to diddle around with aristocrats in Europe, leaving his wife at the home alone with his new experiment. Every direct lighting stroke thereafter caused the bells to clamor mightily and sometimes caused great showers of sparks. He learned, among other things, that it is possible to make inventions which will actively annoy your wife even while you are away. We still use Franklins lightning protection systems to this day, though attaching bells is no longer advised. Annoying your wife is always a valid option.

A fair amount of mystery yet remains in the exact mechanics regarding the flow of electricity. At present, electrical theory allows for two explanations in describing the flow of electricity: conventional flow and electron flow. We must be cautious about getting all sciencey here. To begin, we need to first recognize that positive is used to describe electrons or a place where a bunch of electrons are hanging out together like gangs in seedy neighborhoods, just waiting to bust a move. Positive is a hole where an electron would nicely balance everything in the atomic sense. Positive, in this sense, is a kind of absence, like a place with no beer. Conventional theory assumes that electrical current flows from positive to negative, which is kind of weird, because that ultimately means the flow is the direction of holes travelling in the circuit. Electron theory, contrarily, presumes that current flows from negative to positive. Here we follow the electrons as they rush from a place (potential) of over-abundance and try to fill holes.

Electron flow is the one that rings my bells.

Point is—and I do have one—we really don’t fully understand everything. We use electricity. We make electricity glow, run, juggle, play the fiddle, and lift whole cars, but still we guess at some of the basic facts. As an electrician, I needed to choose a theory for my understanding, so I grabbed one. I probably think about this theory more than I should. Though I have been in the electrical industry for nearly thirty-five solid years, I remain ever fascinated by the stuff. And I have gone so far as to try and apply electron flow theory to all aspects of my life. I seek to always draw away from the negative and find the most positive place.

--Mitchell Hegman