The Story of Electrical and Magnetic Measurements

About the Author Joseph F. Keithley served as a scientist at the U.S. Naval Ordnance Laboratory in Washington, D.C., during World War II. He worked on underwater mine firing devices and achieved the Navy's Distinguished Civilian Service Award for his work. In 1946, he founded Keithley Instruments, Inc., in Cleveland,Ohio. Among the company's customers are Nobel Prize-winning researches who have used the company's products in support of their scientific work. Since 1962, 14 of his company's products have received industry awards from Research and Development Magazine as one of the 100 Most Significant Technical Products of the Year. Mr. Keithley is a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In 1992, he was elected to the National Academy of Engineering for his "pioneering contributions to electronic test and measurement." He is also a member of the Visiting Committee of the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT. Mr. Keithley has been active in the American Management Association and has also served as a member of the Visiting Committee of the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University.

Preface.

Acknowledgments.

Measurements from the Beginning through the Middle Ages.

The Beginnings of Experimental Science.

The First Rotating Electrostatic Generator.

Electric Conductors and Insulators.

Vitreous and Resinous Electric Fluid.

The Leyden Jar--The First Capacitor.

A Bolt of Lightning Is an Electric Discharge.

Early Electrostatic-Measuring Instruments.

The First Quantitative Measurements of Electricity and Magnetism.

A Carefully Prepared Leg of a Dead Frog Twitches When Stimulated Electrically.

Current Electricity Can Be Produced by Chemical Action.

An Electric Current Has an Associated Magnetic Field.

The Foundations of Electrodynamics.

Early Electromagnetic Indicating Instruments.

Mathematics Using Harmonically Related Sinusoids.

Ohm's Law: X = a/1, E = IR, or I = V/R.

Advanced Applications of Mathematics to Measurements and the Development of Many Magnetic and Electrical Measuring Instruments.

Acoustics and Electricity Research.

Transformations of Electrical and Mechanical Energy.

Electromagnetics and Self-Inductance.

The Kelvin Scale, Transatlantic Cable, Sensitive Galvanometers, and Electrometers.

Electromagnetic Radiation.

The Beginnings of Radio.

The Story of a Successful Electrical Instrument Manufacturer.

The Discovery of the Electron, Part I.

The Discovery of the Electron, Part II: Verifying JJ Thomson's Results and Developments Leading into the Twentieth Century.

Appendix: Photo Section.

Index.

About the Author.