Insulated Wire

Insulated wires

When American Joseph Henry first became intended in science at the age of sixteen, he found electricity fascinating and began experimenting with electromagnets.

Wire carrying electricity produce weak magnetic fields around them, if however the wire is coiled many times around a metal such as iron, the effect is magnified and the resulting magnetic field is much stronger. The first electromagnets were coiled very loosely to prevent the current carrying wires touching and causing an electric short circuit.

Henry was the first to use an insulting cover for to use an insulting cover for the wires, so that they could be wrapped more tightly and in many layers multiplying the effect. Henry's first insulation for wires was tediously made from strips of his wife's petticoats.

The material of the insulator has to resist the flow of electricity. This is done by ensuring the constituent atoms have tightly bound elections. The using gutta-percha a latex sap from a species of exposed to air, so early Power Cables were wrapped in jute and placed inside bitumen-field pipes. By the late 1890s wire insulators made of rubber or oil impregnated paper became common. By World War 2 insulation made of synthetic rubber and polyethylene was being introduced