An Historical Survey on Light Technologies

Following the celebration of the International Year of Light and Light-based Technologies in 2015, this paper presents a survey of the exploitation of light throughout our history. Human beings started using light far into the Stone Age, in order to meet immediate needs, and widened its used when ancient civilizations developed. Other practical uses were conceived during the Middle Ages, some of which had a deep impact on social life. Nevertheless, it was after the Scientific Revolution and, to a wider extent, with the Industrial Revolution, that more devices were developed. The advancement of chemistry and electricity provided the ground and the tools for inventing a number of light-related devices, from photography to chemical and electrical lighting technologies. The deeper and broader scientific advancements of the twentieth century, throughout wave and quanta paradigms and the research on the interactions with matter at the sub-atomic level, have provided the knowledge for a much broader exploitation of light in several different fields, leading to the present technological domains of optoelectronics and photoelectronics, including cinema, image processing, lasers, photovoltaic cells, and optical discs. The recent success of fiber optics, white LEDs, and holography, evidence how vastly and deeply the interaction between light and man is still growing

Negative Feedback, Amplifiers, Governors, and More

The invention of the negative feedback amplifier by Harold S. Black (1898\u20131983) in 1928 is considered one of the great achievements in electronics and in fact it stands among the IEEE milestone, being credited to the Bell Labs. Black had been hired by Western Electric in 1921 and assigned to work on the Type C system, a newly introduced three-channel telephone network, whose push-pull vacuum-tube repeater amplifiers tended to produce a too large harmonic distortion when connected in tandem [1]. At that time, telephone network where in a great spread and the Bell Labs arose quickly as the major research company of the sector. The extension of lines over long distances required counteracting signal attenuation, which occurred, though at a reduced level, also in lines provided with Pupin\u2019s loading coils to match the Heaviside condition for distortion-free transmission

Solidifying Power Electronics [Historical]

More than one century ago, in 1902, American engineer Peter Cooper Hewitt (1861\u20131921) derived the mercury arc-rectifier, enclosed in a glass bulb, from his mercury-vapor lamp of the previous year. He devised its use for feeding dc motors from alternating currents. As the first rectifier for power uses (two years before Fleming\u2019s diode and four before De Forest\u2019s audion [1]), the mercury arc-rectifier marked the birth of power electronics

Trailblazers in Electromechanical Computing

Over the last six decades, electronic computing has spread so deeply in science and technology to became a fundamental tool for studying, researching and designing. Passing through vacuum tubes, transistors, integrated circuits and microprocessors, electronics has allows an amazing growth in computing power [1] and the recent commissioning in 2016 of the all-Chinese Sunway TaihuLight with a computing power 93 PFLOPS (1015 floating point operations per second), two and a half times larger than the previous world top supercomputer, the Chinese Tianhe-2 of 2013 powered with Intel processors, suggests that the evolution is still far from saturation. It is quite intriguing to wonder what was automatic computing before electronics started such a boost in computing power. Indeed, the search for mechanical tools aimed at relieving from the burden of computing goes far back into the past, at least to the ancient times when the abacus was built. However, it was with electricity that this possibility made a major step ahead

A Question of Coherence

open1noElectromagnetic waves were first postulated by James Clerk Maxwell (1831-1879) in 1865. To demonstrate their existence 22 years later, Heinrich Hertz (1857-1894) had to design new instrumentation that he used to carry out an experiment than had never been performed before. To detect the waves produced by his oscillating electric circuit, he used a very crude receiver, subsequently known as the Hertz resonator.openGuarnieri, MassimoGuarnieri, Massim

Seventy Years of Getting Transistorized

Vacuum tubes appeared at the break of the twentieth century giving birth to electronics. By the 1930s, they had become established as a mature technology, spreading into areas such as radio communications, long distance radiotelegraphy, radio broadcasting, telephone communication and switching, sound recording and playing, television, radar, and air navigation. During World War II, vacuum tubes were used in the first electronic computers, which were built in the United Kingdom and the United States. Although vacuum tubes had been a successful technology, they were also bulky, fragile and expensive, had a short life, and consumed a lot of power to heat the thermo-emitters. These drawbacks promoted the search for completely new devices. Alternative solutions had long been considered, but without significant developments

Revolving and Evolving-Early dc Machines

In an age largely characterized by information and communication technology (ICT), which uses more and more feeble currents, electrical power is also experiencing a period of excellent health and heads towards a bright future. This success is largely due to electric motors, which are available in different types and powered by direct current (DC) as well as alternating current (AC) sources, provided by power grids or by inverters at variable frequencies. Their versatility and ubiquity is so wide that they can be found almost everywhere: in many household appliances, technician power tools, building fans, factory machine tools, blowers and pumps of industrial fluid systems, cableways, railway and streetcar locomotives, computer disk drives, drivers and printers and cellphone vibration alerts. Tens of billions of electric motors are produced every year, with powers ranging from a few hundredths of a milliwatt to some tens of megawatts. Their future looks bright due to the rise of electric-powered transport, which will be enforced by government measures in many countries in the coming years

Creating the First Web: The 19th-Century Expansion of Telegraphy

The Internet is the result of scientific and technological developments that have occurred in the field of information and communication technology (ICT) in the last 50 years. It has greatly changed not only our way of accessing and exchanging information but also, more generally, our way of life in various aspects and at many different levels. This change has occurred to such an extent that several authors regard it as the fourth big leap in humankind\u2019s communication, after complex language (about 70,000 years ago), writing (approximately 5,000 years ago), and printing (more than 1,000 years ago in China and more than 550 years ago in Europe)

Report On Available Funding Instruments At Eu Level For Students/Researchers Mobility And Results From A Questionnaire About Mobility In Europe

The mobility of researchers in Europe is a key issue toward a better coordination and alignment of Research, Technology, and Development within the European Research Area (ERA). European interested parties, including research centres, universities and agencies underline the importance of an increased mobilization, starting from the university student level up to Managers. The Task Force (TF) setup by the European Research Alliance, EERA, Executive Committee, ExCo, in April 2016, received the mandate to deliver a recommended proposal for an operational student and researcher mobility scheme for EERA Joint Programmes members. This document reports the first study of the EERA TF. It presents the overview, analysis, and comparisons of existing research and industrial mobility programmes within the EU. This includes specific mobility programmes such as the Marie Sk\u142odowska\u2010Curie Actions, Erasmus+, and mobility schemes ongoing in different EU funded projects within EERA members i.e. the Integrated Research Programme in Wind Energy IRPWind, and the European Liason on Electricity Committed Towards long\u2010term Research Activity Integrated Research Programme ELECTRA IRP, and the, Marine Renewables Infrastructure Network for Emerging Energy Technology, MaRINET2. A questionnaire has been created and distributed on Survey Monkey in order to gain direct knowledge of the mobility actions in different institutions. 76 scientists provided their feedback, allowing having an indication of the effectiveness of each mobility program in mobilizing scientists, their strength and weakness points, and how they can be improved. A major highlight is the unanimous appreciations of the mobility opportunities in providing a large International network and personal development; consequently, there is need of more funding to answer the demand

Vanadium redox flow batteries: Potentials and challenges of an emerging storage technology

open4noIn this paper an overview of Vanadium Redox Flow Battery technologies, architectures, applications and power electronic interfaces is given. These systems show promising features for energy storage in smart grid applications, where the intermittent power produced by renewable sources must meet strict load requests and economical opportunities. This paper reviews the vanadium-based technology for redox flow batteries and highlights its strengths and weaknesses, outlining the research lines that aim at taking it to full commercial success.openSpagnuolo, Giovanni, Guarnieri, Massimo; Mattavelli, Paolo; Petrone, Giovanni;Guarnieri, Massimo; Mattavelli, Paolo; Petrone, Giovanni; Spagnuolo, Giovann