I believe you must think that the first to invent electricity was our intelligent human beings. However, you are wrong. As early as hundreds of millions of years ago, many animals in nature have become pioneers in the use of electric energy. This is a group of electric fish D electric fish equipped with "living generators" in their bodies, known as "living power stations", which generate their own electricity, some use electrical energy to find and catch food; some use discharge to send signals to obtain contact with each other. You can't deny that electric fish was the first pioneer in nature to use electric energy.
Electric fish is a general term for fish that can generate electricity. There are about 500 species of electric rays, electric catfish, electric eels, long-jawed fish, and starfish, and more than 20 kinds have been studied in detail. Some of them live in the ocean, and some live in rivers and lakes. According to measurements, the African electric catfish can produce a voltage of 350 volts; the giant electric rays living in the North Atlantic can produce 50 amperes of electricity, 60 volts of voltage, and the electrical power can reach 3000 watts; south
Midea's electric eels emit voltages up to 886 volts.
Electric fish Why can
generate electricity? This is an extremely interesting question. If you simply answer back and forth, it is because the electric fish has a "living generator" in its body, just like a volt battery with "electrodes." Ichthyologists have conducted detailed anatomical studies of electric rays and found that between the gill sac and the pectoral fin of the electric ray, there is a generator on each side, and the current is emitted from this generator. The generator is divided by many fibrous tissues into a hard-dried hexagonal columnar tube, which is stored with colorless gelatinous material, and divided into many small chambers by the diaphragm. In each chamber there is a flat plate, on which there is a bundle of nerve endings, which are branched out by a nerve branching from the brain to the generator, and the plate has a cathode on one side of the peripheral nerve, an anode on the other side, and the direction of current flowing from the anode to the cathode. The amount of electricity it emits is not only related to the number of plates, but also depends on the individual size and strength of the fish. The giant electric ray has a thousand electric plates in series into "rows", and then two thousand such "rows" are connected in parallel to form one
Natural batteries, which produce large currents and high voltages. The world's first artificial battery, the volta battery, was designed according to the model of the generator of the electric ray.
The electric eel is long, very similar to an eel, with a length of six or seven feet, distributed in the rivers of South America, especially in the Amazon River Basin. It has two generators on each side of its tail, and a large number of divine transmissions emitted by the spinal cord can control the power of different intensities emitted by the generators. The maximum voltage it emits is more than 800 volts, and the effective range in the water is 3 meters to 6 meters, and many local waders are stunned by accidentally touching the electric eel, and even fall into the water and drown.
The purpose of electric fish discharge is mainly to hunt food and prevent predators, but it is not always the case. Electric eel discharge is also a need for oxygen, so it can live in stagnant water. Scientists in the United States have discovered a new species of electric fish, the glass fish, which emits radio waves that can be like the sonar signal emitted by bats, and as soon as it touches the target, the radio waves will reflect back to its side. This signal can help the glass fish swim at night, find food, avoid enemies, and can also be used to communicate; they often change the frequency or strength of the electrical signal to convey various information such as alarms. Knifefish swim only within their own power range, where any provocateur will be repelled by electricity.
When the electric fish is discharged, the physical exertion is very large, it seems very tired, and it is necessary to rest well in order to restore the original power generation capacity, and it cannot be continuously discharged. However, when the electric fish discharges, how much electricity is large, how long the discharge time is, you can completely control. More than a hundred years ago, when the Indians caught electric eels, they often drove horses and mules into the water, let the noise of horses' hooves drive the electric eels out and discharge them, and only when the electric eels were exhausted did they use small javelins to catch these big fish to accompany the meal. This method of capture is very expensive, because many horses and mules have been killed by electric shocks. After death, the catfish can also emit electric currents, and the inhabitants of Egypt have used its electricity to treat psychiatric diseases
In fact, with the continuous development of science and technology in recent years, scientists have shown that all living activities in nature emit electric currents, including human beings themselves. However, this current is extremely weak and is not easily perceived. In order to study the strength and change of bioelectricity, many sensitive instruments have been manufactured, such as electrocardiographs and electroencephalometers, to record the activity laws of the human heart and brain. In addition, the "living generator", the bioelectric cell, has also attracted the attention of scientists. It is conceivable that with the rapid development of biomimicry, in the near future, we will be able to simulate electric fish
The power generation organs emit electricity in the sea, which is a good solution to the power problem of ships and submarines, as well as the construction of an electric equipment for spacecraft. All this still needs to be done by relying on science to complete this great blueprint.