WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE
BETWEEN ELECTRONIC AND ELECTRICAL DEVICES?
By Doug Lowe
When the field
of electronics was invented in 1883, electrical devices had already been around
for at least 100 years. For example:
- The first electric
batteries were invented by a fellow named Alessandro Volta in 1800.
Volta’s contribution is so important that the common volt is
named for him. (There is some archeological evidence that the ancient
Parthian Empire may have invented the electric battery in the second
century BC, but if so we don’t know what they used their batteries for,
and their invention was forgotten for 2,000 years.)
- The electric telegraph
was invented in the 1830s and popularized in America by Samuel Morse, who
invented the famous Morse code used to encode the alphabet and numerals
into a series of short and long clicks that could be transmitted via
telegraph. In 1866, a telegraph cable was laid across the Atlantic Ocean
allowing instantaneous communication between the United States and Europe.
All of these
devices, and many other common devices still in use today, such as light bulbs,
vacuum cleaners, and toasters, are known as electrical devices. So
what exactly is the difference between electrical devices and electronic
devices?
The answer lies
in how devices manipulate electricity to do their work. Electrical devices take
the energy of electric current and transform it in simple ways into some other
form of energy — most likely light, heat, or motion. The heating elements in a
toaster turn electrical energy into heat so you can burn your toast. And the
motor in your vacuum cleaner turns electrical energy into motion that drives a
pump that sucks the burnt toast crumbs out of your carpet.
In contrast,
electronic devices do much more. Instead of just converting electrical energy
into heat, light, or motion, electronic devices are designed to manipulate the
electrical current itself to coax it into doing interesting and useful things.
That very first
electronic device invented in 1883 by Thomas Edison manipulated the electric
current passing through a light bulb in a way that let Edison create a device
that could monitor the voltage being provided to an electrical circuit and
automatically increase or decrease the voltage if it became too low or too
high.
One of the most common
things that electronic devices do is manipulate electric current in a way that
adds meaningful information to the current. For example, audio electronic
devices add sound information to an electric current so that you can listen to
music or talk on a cellphone. And video devices add images to an electric
current so you can watch great movies until you know every line by heart.
Keep in mind that the
distinction between electric and electronic devices is a bit blurry. What used
to be simple electrical devices now often include some electronic components in
them. For example, your toaster may contain an electronic thermostat that
attempts to keep the heat at just the right temperature to make perfect toast.
And even the most
complicated electronic devices have simple electrical components in them. For
example, although your TV set’s remote control is a pretty complicated little
electronic device, it contains batteries, which are simple electrical devices.
