Over a century – the IEC from 1906 to the present day

New website section retraces major events in the history of the IEC

"If you're looking for information on any one of the major milestones that make up the history of electrotechnology, then this is the place to go" says IEC's Webmaster, Laila Briquet-Mosig who has been instrumental in setting up the new section on the website. "There's so much information in there and it's laid out in a really attractive way so that I wouldn't hesitate to send my kids to look at it, either, if they needed help on a project for school. For example, the historical videos section gives a lot of insight into the past and explanation on some interesting innovations."

First developed in the context of the IEC centenary in 2006, the history section provides detailed information on all the major happenings, from the electrical units that, today, are known as SI, short for Système international and first developed by Giovanni Giorgi, through the 20 000 terms that make up today's Electropedia, the online IEC International Electrotechnical Vocabulary. It summarizes how the first technical committees came about and traces their subsequent development right up to those working on the technologies of today.

A separate section gives access to the Techline, the IEC's highly graphical and animated account of the electrical century, with its subdivisions that retrace thinkers through the ages, major inventions, inventors and technologies as well as all the IEC technical committees which are depicted in images. The entire range is there, from TC 1, Terminology to TC 112, Evaluation and qualification of electrical insulating materials and systems.

In a nutshell, a modern description of the IEC today reads as follows:

“The IEC, headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, is the world's leading organization that prepares and publishes International Standards for all electrical, electronic and related technologies – collectively known as " electrotechnology". IEC standards cover a vast range of technologies from power generation, transmission and distribution to home appliances and office equipment, semiconductors, fibre optics, batteries, flat panel displays and solar energy, to mention just a few. Wherever you find electricity and electronics, you find the IEC supporting safety and performance, the environment, electrical energy efficiency and renewable energies.

The IEC also administers international conformity assessment schemes in the areas of Electrical Equipment and components testing and certification (IECEE), Quality of electronic components, materials and processes (IECQ) and certification of electrical equipment operated in Explosive atmospheres (IECEx).”

But think back to 1906 and the founding of the IEC, back to the days of Lord Kelvin, the first president of the IEC, famous for the unit of temperature that was named after him. We’ve already come a long way and we've only just started the next century in the history of electrotechnology.