Sparking Imaginations: Exhibit & Opening Lecture
A look back at the dawn of electricity—and ahead to our surging power demand
Free lecture: 4 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 30
Interactive exhibit: Oct. 27–Jan. 15, Collins Memorial Library
TACOMA, Wash. – In the next 25 years our need for energy worldwide will jump by about 50 percent, the U.S. Energy Information Agency predicts. Where will all this extra power come from? Already some American utilities cannot meet their customers’ demand for electricity during peak hours. So what do we do next?
This is a conversation that needs to involve not just scientists and governments, but ordinary citizens, who ultimately will feel the effect of any decisions made, say the organizers of a new exhibit and public lecture at University of Puget Sound.
Sparking Imaginations: The History and Technology of Electricity and Electric Power, an exhibit beginning Oct. 27, will provide a valuable learning experience to spark off such a discussion. It investigates the study of electricity from the 18th to the 21st centuries, and considers today’s electrical generation and conservation efforts. The exhibit will run from Monday, Oct. 27, to Thursday, Jan. 15, in Collins Memorial Library. Entrance is free. See below for opening hours.
The chance to hear from two researchers and speak out on the topic will come on Oct. 30. The free lecture, “Sparking Imaginations,” by professors Amy Fisher, in the Science, Technology, and Society Program, and Amy Spivey, in the Department of Physics, will discuss the history and present state of electrical power generation. A question and comment period will follow.
The talk will take place 4–5 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 30, in Thompson Hall, Room 175. A reception will follow in Collins Memorial Library, 5–6:30 p.m., with opportunities to view the exhibit and to meet special guest Benjamin Franklin (as a life-size cardboard rendition).
Visitors to the library exhibit will be able to create a “human battery” by touching two metal plates and creating a current that is recorded by a galvanometer. Also on view will be a hand-crank generator that manually rotates a coil of wire between the poles of a magnet, thereby turning on a light bulb. Visitors will learn about the pioneers in the field—Benjamin Franklin, Jean-Antoine Nollet, Hans Christian Orsted, Michael Faraday, Thomas Edison, and others—and the social, cultural, and intellectual challenges these scientists faced.
The exhibit also will include early photographs and information about the growth of Tacoma Public Utilities. Publically owned since 1893, the water and electric power supplier went through a period after World War I when it supplied appliances to homeowners and lamps to businesses to encourage manufacturing and municipal power usage. Today the same company encourages customers to think seriously about energy conservation.
Sparking Imaginations is supported by Tacoma Public Utilities; the Office of the President at University of Puget Sound; Collins Memorial Library; the Department of Physics; and the Science, Technology, and Society Program at University of Puget Sound. Special thanks also goes to the many participating students, faculty, and staff.
For directions and a map of the University of Puget Sound campus: pugetsound.edu/directions.
For accessibility information please contact accessibility@pugetsound.edu or 253.879.3236, or visit pugetsound.edu/accessibility.
For the exhibit’s extended opening hours in Collins Memorial Library, call 253.879.3675 or visit: pugetsound.edu/libraryhours