• Introduction
• A Magnetic Personality
• A Powerful Discovery
• Around the Circuit
• What's a Watt and What It's Not
• NC GreenPower's Electrical Connection
• Download this article as a

A powerful discovery

In the early 1800s, the scientist Michael Faraday discovered what is now known as electromagnetic induction. He found that if a magnet is rotated around a loop of wire, the wire becomes electrified from the movement of electrons in the metal.

Thomas Edison compounded that discovery and in 1882 opened the world’s first electric power plant in New York City, employing the same model of a magnet rotating around a wire to generate electricity. His power plant burned coal to make steam for turning a mechanical dynamo containing magnets. Today, power plants use a larger but similar technique to provide for the electric needs of towns and cities around the globe.