ABSTRACT

Electricity is ubiquitous in the modern world. Almost all the key technologies of twenty-first-century life depend on it. Communications and media, often regarded as the most fundamental and distinctive elements of modernity, have become almost wholly electronic: the internet, social media, phones, television and radio are all entirely dependent on electricity. The knowledge economy of the developed world is inconceivable without it. Transport is perhaps a little less reliant on electricity, although most trains, trams and urban transport systems are electrically powered, and even cars, aeroplanes and other vehicles that generate their own power now invariably incorporate subsidiary electronic systems. Industry makes very heavy use of electricity, to the point where some large industrial plants (steel and aluminium works, for example) possess their own power stations. Domestically, electricity is equally universal, at least in the developed world. Most homes run numerous electric devices including vacuum cleaners, radios, televisions, phones, refrigerators, freezers, washing machines, kettles, cookers, musical equipment, computers, printers, hairdryers, and countless other gadgets and devices.